[ExI] YES! Hard-core transhumanist splinter

Mike Dougherty msd001 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 21 22:30:58 UTC 2010


On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 4:44 AM, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I suspect that many people, after considering the absurdities of religion and so on, decide that they are materialists, then after realising what this implies for their own 'selves', change their minds.  The implications can be quite disturbing for some people (and quite exciting for others), but that has no bearing on whether they are true.

what is "true" and what models people use to get through the day/their
lives aren't necessarily 1:1.

I can conceive of being interchangeably human just like any other
representative of the species and not much different from an ant in a
hill (bee in a hive, whatever)  There are moments where these
insignificant units have unique value; such as being closest to a new
source of food or able to articulate a previously ineffable idea.
Otherwise their role would be filled by another unit in the collective
with negligible difference to the species as a whole.

Who would embrace that?  I imagine most people would rather believe
they provide unique or special value.

Perhaps the machinery you copy during upload specifically contains a
highly-evolved self-delusion mechanism?  If you leave it out and all
the uploads suddenly become completely rational and realistic, have
you "successfully" uploaded the original 'person' or have you created
something else?  bonus: would the now-hyper-rational even want to
continue living in their new state of raw truth?   What do you think
the yes/no percentage might be?




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