[ExI] Human extinction

[Stefano Vaj]

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 7:41 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

> One's freedom of self-decision should include have a
> veto over all circumstances under which one would be
> run.


This is in my understanding also Egan's position, whose characters in novels
such as Incandescence are pretty much concerned of the lot of their possible
"abusive" copies, and thus take care of teleporting themselves in an
encrypted form.

But, for the sake of discussion, what exactly would be the rationale behind
such right of veto? I am especially thinking of borderline scenarios, which
are usually useful to enlighten possible general rules. E.g., what about an
identity that is "reconstructed" or "emulated" with growing and asymptotic
accuracy, but where conflicting rights might be claimed by the "creator"
against those of the "model"? And what about the conflict between the model
and a copy who is faithful and dynamic enough to claim an "agency" similar
to that of the "original" ("I want to be run against a Roman Empire
scenario", "No, you are a mere copy and have to live in the Aztec World
because this is the will of the model on which you were developed").

Stefano Vaj

>
>  This would not prevent them in the least to go out and
>> shoot themselves in the head. Would we be denying
>> them a hypothetical "right to oblivion"?
>>
>
> I hate this kind of use of the word "right"  :-)


So do I... In fact, I even wrote a book on the subject. :-)

Paradoxically enough, screaming around that somebody "has a right" to
something usually signifies that he or she does *not* have such a right
(yet), as far as the legal system concerned goes, but you would like him or
her to be granted it.

>
> But anyway, I do approve of people having the choice
> of total oblivion or not. If that's the way they *really*
> want it, then so be it.
>

But would we really be prepared to limit the freedom of speech of
biographers and historians to protect such choice? And if not, what about
movies? What about interactive movies? What about interactive VR system
starring the individual concerned? And you see where this eventually brings
us...

Stefano Vaj
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