[extropy-chat] limits of computer feeling

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 3/12/07, John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:

"Ricardo Barreira" <rbarreira at gmail.com>
>
> >  Our future selves will probably have a lot of fun.
>
> Perhaps a little too much fun. If you could increase your happiness and
> pleasure to any degree desired simply by turning a knob you would be in
> grave danger of turning into the ultimate drug addict. It could be an
> explanation for the Fermi Paradox.


Except you could arbitrarily reassign the pleasure to goal-directed
activity, the re-encephalisation of emotion in David Pearce's terminology:

(http://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/hedon1.htm#re-encephalisation)

More generally, if you had complete access to your mind and could re-program
it at will, you could set your own desires or second and higher order
desires: for example, you could simply decide to be a stoic, not being
tempted to indulge in pleasure, no matter how extreme.

Finally, what would be wrong with a life of continuous, undifferentiated
pleasure? The only disadvantage I can see is that as with drug addiction, it
can lead to neglect of all other functions, such as your job, your family,
your physical health. But if we had control over unlimited processing power,
the necessities of life, and even more elaborate endeavours such as
scientific research, could be assigned to subroutines while the greater part
of your mind continues its residence in heaven.

Stathis Papaioannou
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