[extropy-chat] Prime Directive

[George Dvorsky]

> A B wrote:
> > Robert writes:
> > "Might I suggest that "consciousness" is a poor criteria for deciding what
> > to preserve or not preserve.  Yes I know -- without that our moral compass
> > is adrift in a sea of chaos.  Life is a dish almost always served cold."

And Anders Sandberg wrote:
> I also wonder why consciousness, of all properties, should be ethically
> important. Why not the ability to experience love, or having six legs?
> What is it about consciousness that makes it so special?

[George shakes his head incredulously]: What's so important about
consciousness!? Well, it's through consciousness that the Universe has
this little thing that we like to call observers -- and without them
there is nothing in the Universe that's self-reflexive. Hell, it's
arguable (via quantum theory) that without observers there is no
Universe!

Anders, how can love be experienced by an unconscious,
non-self-referential, non-subjective agent? What you're suggesting is
absurd.

Consciousness is the measure of all ethics because subjectivity is the
only thing that truly exists - esse est percipi.

George