[ExI] funny transhumanist story

[Keith Henson]

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Natasha Vita-More <natasha at natasha.cc> wrote:
> I will repeat what has already been stated: no knowledgeable transhumanist
> would argue that everyone should be uploaded against their will.
>
> A human being must have control over his/her right of body, brain and mind
> and no one should coerce any human to evolve/morph/upload.

I outlined a story where an evil character uploaded a mess of
millennial Christians, I forget exactly why, on the day they had
predicted the rapture.  After a couple of weeks they were noticed to
be missing.  The cops found them all at home in cocoons plugged into
the net.  The story revolves around this poor rookie cop who was sent
into the simulation to inform them that they were not in Heaven after
all, but had been uploaded as a joke.  They were offered a chance to
go back to real life.  For the reasons Natasha gives, this took their
informed consent, you can't just boot them out of a simulation even if
they had been put there illegally.

Also they were in a 50 to 1 speed up simulation so as far as they were
concerned they had been in heaven for two years subjective.

The mechanism used was non destructive, fully reversible so they could
be put back in their bodies, with or without memory wipe of the
experiences.  Question, can you get bored in Heaven?

Lots of story possibilities that I didn't develop even in outline.

Keith



> Anyone who says otherwise is not a prominent transhumanist (caveat: or has
> an alternative perspective which does not coerce anyone to do anything they
> do not want to do.)
>
>
> Natasha Vita-More
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
> [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Alan Grimes
> Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 9:02 AM
> To: ExI chat list
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Towards a new transhumanist movement.
>
> chrome://messenger/locale/messengercompose/composeMsgs.properties:
> (argh).
>
>> Alan,
>
>> No prominent transhumanists are arguing that people should be uploaded
>> even if they don't want to.
>
>> You would benefit from paying attention to reality for a change...
>
>
> Look, Aleksei, Lets start with Bostrom. As far as he is concerned, the
> debate on what we should be in the future is long since settled.
> Actually, he talks like a 12 year old who's just discovered boobies about
> the subject. The only question that he will entertain any discussion of is
> whether or not we are already essentially uploads in someone else's
> simulation.
>
> Now if you collar any of the "prominent transhumanists" you speak of, sure
> they will croak out "sure sure, the choice is all yours." But when it comes
> to actually making a promise to that effect, they will sternly refuse,
> making some excuse about it being redundant or playing into fears. Well, are
> those fears valid,
>
> Furthermore, when someone as offensive as "Extropia D'Silva" starts talking
> about uploading everyone, I'm usually the *ONLY* person to call her on it,
> much less the first. Lord knows what they talk about when I'm not present.
>
> --
> DO NOT USE OBAMACARE.
> DO NOT BUY OBAMACARE.
> Powers are not rights.
>
>
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