[ExI] Clarification of me and uploading.

[John Clark]

On Oct 22, 2010, at 12:24 AM, Alan Grimes wrote:

> No, I don't think you are coming to upload me.

I'm glad to hear it.

> Instead, you are creating a philosophy and culture which places
> extremely low value on the viewpoints of people who don't agree with
> uploading.

Hey I'm a libertarian, if you don't want to get uploaded then I don't think you should get uploaded. Do I personally have a low opinion of the reasons offered against uploading? Yes. Am I certain that a Jupiter Brain will have the same libertarian view I do regarding meat human beings? No. 

> If this culture is allowed to persist and develop through the
> singularity

What social norms will persist and develop through the singularity is not predictable, that's why it's called a singularity.

> it will compound the probability that greedy visual perceptrons will focus themselves on the Earth and go ahead and upload (or simply anihilate) everyone

But if you put a gun to my head and made me predict, I'd say that the above is likely to happen regardless of the culture that exists at the moment. 

> My second issue is that other non-uploaders such as a person who
> responded to my thread on another mailing list feel repulsed by being
> "slammed" by the uploaders for expressing more modest transhumanistic goals.

So what? You don't have a constitutional right never to be offended. 

> For transhumanism to become mainstream several things need to happen within the movement:
> 1. It must be accepted

By Who?

> that computronium is not an end in itself.

The computronium may not agree, indeed most living things think a continuation of existence is an end in itself; and the will to power does seem to be a real phenomena for all evolutionarily successful beings.

> It must also be accepted that destructive brain uploading is close to the worst ways of
> going about it.

I've been hearing that statement for years, and without exception when stripped of their pseudoscientific veneer every single one of the arguments supporting that view turns into nothing but pure superstition.   

> Instead a litmus test is given and all non-uploaders are rejected by the community

I like litmus tests, they made a valuable contribution to chemistry; and I can't speak for the transhuman community but whenever I hear somebody trot out tired old lame reasons to be terrified of destructive uploading I realize the person in question is not willing to push logic as far as it will go and see where you end up. 

  John K Clark



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