[ExI] turing movie

[spike]

>… On Behalf Of Anders Sandberg
Subject: Re: [ExI] turing movie

 

Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> , 8/8/2014 11:16 AM:

re "To this day, that government has failed to fully own the shame of 
that disgraceful affair." - some time ago the UK government said (in 
perfect British style;-) that Turing's homosexual lifestyle was 
illegal at the time, so legally speaking he deserved punishment. Of 
course, they distanced themselves from the UK laws of the 1950s. 

 

>…Which is sensible. Laws in the past have been immoral …Some moral things are illegal. That doesn't mean that we should wish some remote future retroactively pardons us for doing it, since it does not change the present at all. Instead we should work to make the laws in the present that mirror what we think is moral. But since we are fallible about morality this means we need accept that some of the morality we impose might indeed be misguided. Which is why banning things should not be done lightly. 

 

 

Excellent post Anders, thanks for this.

 

An ironic thought occurred to me as I read it.  We talk about those long past having been harmed by flaws in the legal process of their times and how it is impossible to redress the wrongs in the present.  Now as we enter the age of cryonics, the whole notion takes on new meaning.  Imagine our collective ethics changes (it always does) and the change has direct impact on those currently awaiting uploading.  We are no longer necessarily dealing with only the progeny, legacy and the memory of the deceased, but also her actual mind.  Astonishing thought.

 

spike

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