[ExI] Uploads as a group of AI agents

[Ben Zaiboc]

> I kind of suspect that copies will not be permitted.  You think we
have a population problem?
> Imagine the whole population multiplying by 5, 10, or 1000.  One way
this might be done is to limit uploads to those who have stored their
bodies in an inactive state.  But I don't know how it will turn out.
> I do find Robin Hanson's em ideas, where endless copies are made to
reduce labor cost, to be disturbing.


Before uploading can become a common thing, we're going to have to figure out how to make powerful computing systems run on much less energy than they do now. I'm sure plenty of people have compared the energy requirements of our brains to our current computers.

Keith Henson wrote:



Given that can be solved, there's no reason why the population of uploads can't be many orders of magnitude greater than the population of biological humans, even on the earth (and of course, uploads will be ideal for colonising space). I'd expect the population would reach quadrillions, in the entire solar system. Much more, with mature nanotechnology.

Once uploads exist, I expect there will be a huge jump forward in our understanding of how our minds (and minds in general) work, and I wouldn't be surprised if we soon afterwards have the ability to build them to order, including limited-purpose minds, ideally suited for the kinds of work that Robin Hanson is talking about, without any need for exploitation of any full-scale people (we might well have to devise a classification system for minds, going from fairly simple automata, through current-human level minds, and on to superintelligences).

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Ben