[ExI] ai class at stanford

[Samantha Atkins]

On 08/29/2011 01:03 PM, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 12:11 PM, Kelly Anderson<kellycoinguy at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> I'm objecting, just a bit, on a technicality, to this statement... I
>> don't think we understand how anything works to 100% detail. We don't
>> know if it's all strings in 11 dimensions, or something else. What we
>> do know is how to predict things with enough accuracy to be useful and
>> reproducible.
> Fair enough.  That's the sense I was going for.  Though, note that that
> phrasing leaves open the possibility of objecting even if we do achieve it.
>
> Take, for example, me.  People sometimes question my chains of logic -
> and sometimes rightly so.  I'm human, nobody's perfect all the time.  But
> let's say I get uploaded then make a mistake.  Even if there is scads of
> evidence that the emulation is most likely perfect, won't there be a
> temptation to always declare that any mistakes I make are due to flaws
> in my emulated mind?

No more than you blame your parents, genetics, any possible brain damage 
and such for your
mistakes now.  It is actually not in your interest to blame these 
externalities as you would be
effectively saying that you are fundamentally broken and not to be 
trusted to some degree.
Self defeating.

>   This will be impossible to completely prove or
> disprove: even if my emulation and my original version live side by side,
> experiencing and learning much the same things, by the time any
> difference comes up, there will inevitably have been differences that could
> cause different thoughts.  (For example, the exact moment we wake up,
> thought cycles devoted to use of our different physical capabilities, and
> so on.)  If the uploading process is destructive and one-way, it becomes
> even harder to prove or disprove, as there won't be an original me to
> compare to.

So what?  Why would it be of any practical use or a useful use of your 
time to fret over it?
You couldn't easily sue the upload firm as they likely required sign off 
and releases aplenty.
So wouldn't you only be undercutting your self-confidence and the 
confidence of others in you?

- s