[ExI] simulation as an improvement over reality

Ben Zaiboc bbenzai at yahoo.com
Sun Dec 26 14:30:38 UTC 2010


The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> ?I just don't see the enlightened self-interest of uploading. 

So don't do it, then.


> You don't get to live forever. Instead a bit-pattern that very quickly diverges 
> away from you gets indefinite run time. 
> That's not any closer to immortality than having kids or writing a book.

Hmm.

What is 'you' then?

You seem to assume that a bit-pattern is not sufficent to encompass all that 'you' are.

Afaik, there are only two things that could possibly be 'you': atoms or information.

We know it's not atoms, because that can be experimentally demonstrated.  
So it must be information.  If you know of (or even suspect) a third possibility, please tell us.



> Even if one didn't upload onself, a simple brute-force search
of permutation space is liable to hit upon any specific bit-pattern of
your evolution in finite time. That means that given enough evolving bit
patterns any bit pattern that represents "you" at any instant of time would very likely to be converged upon by another entity in the course of their own evolution. 

Indeed. Interesting, isn't it?  Counterintuitive, even.


> So for example, some other upload could assume the same bit pattern
you might have had at some stage of your evolution.  You and someone else could become identical copies of one another for some duration because of the birthday paradox. 

I don't see what relevance the birthday paradox has here.

You and someone else could indeed become the same person, at least theoretically. 
This is really no different to a standard 'mind copying' scenario, and introduces no new factors or problems.


> If identity becomes too malleable somewhere along the line,
it becomes concomitantly meaningless.
 
Now you're making a conceptual jump that I don't see any justification for.  
What makes it 'meaningless'?  We already know that identity is malleable.
I'm a different person to what I was just a few years ago.  I don't think my identity is 'meaningless' at all!


> And if one contends that identity is inherently meaningless, then what precisely are you "preserving" with an upload????

Identity is not inherently meaningless, but even if it were, an upload would still  preserve it.  If it didn't, it wouldn't be an upload.



> Virtual environments differ from reality another way too. I offer without proof...

If you're going to offer things without proof, then anyone is justified in dismissing them without proof!

Ben Zaiboc


      




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