[ExI] simulation as an improvement over reality

Alan Grimes agrimes at speakeasy.net
Sun Dec 26 04:54:21 UTC 2010


Jeff Davis wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 8:22 AM, Alan Grimes <agrimes at speakeasy.net> wrote:

>> I want nothing that uploading offers.

>> ... if you want to upload FINE, ... ...just permit me the chance to evolve in a different direction.

>> To which the answer from the community booms down "NO".


> I'm okay with this deal.  it seems self-limiting to me.

> If you reject the choice to upload now, three other choices avail:
> natural death, extended life, or some form of storage.  If you die --
> a form of evolving in a different direction -- you end the conflict.
> If you enjoy an extended lifespan, then you continue to interact with
> the world as it continues to evolve.  This means you will be presented
> with a unceasing stream of previously unavailable choices for your
> further evolution, from which you will pick one of four, (ie
> re-iterate from step zero): choose to change, choose to die, choose to
> carry on "maturing naturally" in an ever-changing environment, choose
> to be stored.  This last choice, storage, simply puts off the other
> choices to a later date.  Unless of course, you die in storage.

Yeah, storage is pretty much a last resort. I'm feeling an increasing
sense of urgency in releasing a book I haven't yet written about my
ideas about transhumanism. I am preparing an on-line version that will
be on an unspecified wiki in some unspecified time. (first very rough
chapter already posted).

Right now, I'm experiencing severe, unheard of technical difficulties
with my primary workhorse desktop computer that I just spent over $2,000
on building. I will be struggling to resolve those until further notice. =(

Namely, my arrow and navigation keys are completely malfunctioning, none
work right, for example the down arrow has the effect of pressing down
arrow and enter key, the other keys are so messed up that I don't even
know what they're doing. Linux's stupid utilities aren't helping me
resolve anything, The X11 keyboard stack is incomprehensibly complex.
Speaking of which, only twm, the most primitive of window managers still
available is the *ONLY* window manager that can even activate my left
monitor right now. The keyboard is an antique IBM Soft Touch,
date-stamped 1997, connected to the PS2 port. I have no idea what is
wrong with that either. I had a problem booting this 3.2ghz, 6-core
machine; it was taking 10 minutes but that was solved by cold booting
the machine with total removal of power (A troubleshooting step that is
impossible to an upload). The hardware is NEW, bought only this summer,
it typically runs 45+ days at a stretch when everything is working.

The machine HAD been working OK until Thanksgiving when I decided to
reboot it after a 50-day stretch of perfect operation. Apparently an
update or twenty broke it beyond recognition. At first I blamed gcc
4.5.1 which also broke apache on my company's server. I re-compiled
everything with GCC 4.4.5 but problems did not subside. =( I've lived
with it for about a month now, hoping that a further update would make
the problem simply go away, as is the time-honored pattern with gentoo.
Unfortunately, it appears that user intervention is necessary. Once
again, I'm at square 1, trying to figure out where to look to get
information that will get me any closer to returning my machine to
normal operation.

In other news, all glitchyness with my overclocked DOS machine (Pentium
166 overclocked to 150 mhz on a 75 mhz bus) was resolved by overvolting
the processor by 0.1 volts. If I ever die, that machine will still be
fully operational without a single defect. =|

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DO NOT BUY OBAMACARE.
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