[ExI] Human extinction

[Emlyn]

2008/8/14 hkhenson <hkhenson at rogers.com>:
> On another list I said.
>
>> >My best guess is that physical state humans will not exist long
>> >after the singularity--something I can't see holding off even half
>> >way to the end of this century.
>>
>> >Then the question becomes how our intellectual descendants deal with
>> >the problems. I suspect at best humans will have the status of
>> >cats--in some ways an unnerving prospect considering what we do to
>> >cats.
>
> A person responded with a statement that religious objections will keep
> people from uploading.  I said:
>
> I know at least 4 people that if they got their hands on the
> technology would upload the lot of the religious folks looking for
> the Rapture.  I know it isn't ethical.  Perhaps I should write a
> story about a police officer who enters a rapture simulation to offer
> a rescue to the people in it.
>
> Story background, the evil dweeb hacker from Perth Amboy saved a copy
> of their state vector when they were uploaded.  Their bodies are
> preserved.  The simulation runs at 100 times wall clock, so by the
> time (a week) the poor cop goes in to tell them they are in a fake
> heaven they have been there 2 subjective years.
>
> They are offered:
>
> 1) reloading into their bodies with existing memories.
> 2) termination and reloading of their memories prior to the uploading
> into their physical bodies.
> 3) continuation in their current uploaded environment with memories
> that they are in a fake heaven
> 4) same as 3 but erasing the memory of the cop's visit.
> 5) same as 3 or 4 but forked with the original body being put back on
> the street with no memory of two years in heaven.
>
> Did I miss anything?  What would you do with such an offer?
>
> Heh heh
>
> Keith

The faithful, especially that variety, tend not to run on rationality;
they prefer I think to be guided by gut instinct. Also, when you don't
have any way to measure merit in a group, you have to structure in
other ways, notably by baser measures of status (political ability
will be the thing). And, they are absolutely awesome at ignoring the
elephant in the livingroom; they wont feel bound by such simplistic
things as the bald truth.

I read somewhere that cults go through this kind of process, and you
get this refining process happen, where, when the objective world
intrudes, those on the fence can lose faith and leave, but the truly
devoted become even more devoted, more closed to the outside world,
plus overall the consensus moves away from reality by the simple fact
of losing the least committed people.

Given that an upload of the rapture is going to be giving these people
what they want, and will feel good at a gut level, I'd guess that they
would do 3, but in a slight variation; they'd likely string the cop up
from the nearest rafter, then go on as if he'd never been there, *or*,
use him as an example of the lies the devil will tell, and become even
more committed to their worldview.

Also, the people who are in power in the group of uploads would have
established themselves well and truly after 2 years, and would not be
the kinds of people to greet the prospect of losing their positions
with glee. So you'd get opposition to change from the top.

As a final addendum, some would choose to leave the sim (I would guess
they'd mostly be the least powerful people in the group, lowest on the
status ladder, and possibly previous power holders who recently lost
status), and the rest would choose to stay.

-- 
Emlyn

http://emlynoregan.com