[ExI] A step from humanoid to cyborg

[Anders Sandberg]

On 18/09/2012 11:39, Stefano Vaj wrote:
> One prob is that even, say, on the Italian H+ list resistance to 
> animal experimentation is growing. So, either we start using humans 
> directly and contribute to the universe's happiness by sparing 
> innumerable mice and monkeys, or we risk to be restricted to 
> simulations...

Well, please tell the list that in order to get simulations worth 
anything, we will have to do a lot more animal experimentation. In the 
long run it will of course mean just a finite number of animals are used 
before we all run simulations, but in practice calibrating simulations 
takes a lot of experimental data, so in the short term there will be 
much animal use.

And if you are an uploader, using too advanced sims is of course just as 
unacceptable as using real animals. There are some curious issues, since 
you can resurrect killed animals, but if suffering is the issue then 
good simulations are not acceptable. Which leaves the problem of telling 
when a reduced or partial simulation produces relevant data, or produces 
enough of a mind/consciousness/whatever to lead to ethical quandaries. 
(I work on a paper on this)


I wonder, suppose the only way we could truly improve the human 
condition long-term involved an unavoidable quantity of suffering of 
innocents. What amount of suffering would then morally preclude 
attempting this improvement? Deontological systems might have a rather 
firm answer on that, likely concluding that it is impermissible to 
become posthuman, no matter how good that state is, if it requires 
impermissible acts. Total utilitarians are fine with any finite amount 
of suffering if we can get super-benefits that outweigh it. The really 
weird things happen if you start considering war ethics, where people 
analyse how you should act if you are thrust into a situation where 
acting immorally is unavoidable: could this kind of reasoning apply to 
the current human condition (we are being killed by the world, and our 
physiology forces us to subsist on living beings), and imply that one 
should "fight" ones way out of it as morally as possible?


-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Faculty of Philosophy
Oxford University

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