[ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment

[Tara Maya]

I agree. Less hate would be nice. But I'm not sure less suffering, as such, is possible. Indeed, I believe that we humans (presently) suffer in ways that other animals cannot. We suffer in anticipation of pain, not just from pain itself, for instance. We suffer from subtle emotions like jealousy, guilt, and heartbreak. Emotional pain can be so intense that humans will hurt themselves physically to distract themselves from it. If transhumans are capable of even subtler and deeper emotions, will they not also be vulnerable to subtler and deeper anguish? Or perhaps cognitions that now leave us cold will be even more entwined with emotion (rather than less, as many seem to assume). Perhaps a transhuman will contemplate an unsolved math problem and weep; and upon solving it, feel ecstasy. 

Tara Maya
The Unfinished Song: Initiate 
The Unfinished Song: Taboo
The Unfinished Song: Sacrifice 


On Feb 1, 2012, at 10:42 AM, Kelly Anderson wrote:

> 2012/2/1 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
>> On 1 February 2012 12:07, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I for one want whatever comes after us (or that we evolve into) to
>>> maintain an element of humanity (the ethical part, not necessarily the
>>> people themselves) in the sense that there are genuine emotions
>>> involved.
>> 
>>  My vote is that
> the richness of human emotions is a good thing to try and work into
> the next generation, with perhaps some tweaking. For example, if AGI
> has compassion, I'd like it to have super human compassion, maybe
> modeled on the Dali Lama... :-)  If it's going to have intelligence,
> let it be super human intelligence, if it is going to have hate, maybe
> not so much hate. That sort of thing. But to get rid of hate
> altogether, to get rid of disgust, I think that would be a mistake as
> it would possibly impede long term survival. We have a lot to
> appreciate from our evolutionary endowment of emotions, and I'd hate
> for post humanity to not be in touch with their inner Sapien.