[ExI] A dispassionate examination of being an upload.

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2010/9/21 John Clark <jonkc at bellsouth.net>:

> Easier said than done. I don't believe it would be viable for a mind's
> happiness to be forever fixed at one point regardless of whatever good or
> bad things happened around it, there would be no motivation to do anything
> if your satisfaction can never increase or decrease as a result of it; and
> even worse, rigidly fixed rules of whatever sort leave a mind vulnerable to
> getting stuck in infinite loops. So you're going to have to come up with
> a scheme for moving that pleasure point, one that depends on circumstances
> and does so in a way that you think is responsible. But whatever security
> you set up protecting that vital process will certainly be able to be
> subverted, especially when you become far more intelligent and powerful than
> you were when you dreamed up the scheme and the security arrangements so
> many nanoseconds ago.
> And besides, even if you could overcome all these huge obstacles and forever
> limit your happiness, would you?

You need not limit your happiness, only your path to happiness. If you
enjoy smoking cigarettes but think it's bad for you you could modify
yourself so that you no longer desire to smoke cigarettes even though
you know you would like it if you did; after all, people manage to do
this all the time today without benefit of direct access to their
mind. Or, you could modify yourself so that you are disgusted at the
thought of cigarettes and associate the cigarette-like pleasure with
an activity that you find unpleasant but intrinsically worthwhile,
such as exercising.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou