[ExI] Bodies

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 18 March 2010 02:57,  <jameschoate at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> ---- Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
>
>> SURELY I speak for at least some, here, who see the benefits
>> of achieving uploading wholly in these other terms:
>>
>> * increased security
>
> Security from what/who? I think that the belief that uploading will somehow reduce the impact of competition and corruption is a pipe dream. Lawrence Lessig addressed the generally unrecognized impact of code as a second form of law in his book. To quote Jefferson "have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him?" the infrastructure that this requires has to be built by somebody, and at least some of those will be corrupt. And the simple fact is that there isn't any way around that reality, virtual or not.

More secure because more durable and can be backed up.

>> * brain tampering
>
> How would one know? Trust the hash algorithms indicating cohesion? Who wrote those programs? Who wrote the compiler and tool chain to implement them? Who loaded them and what sorts of chroot opportunity did they have? How do you verify (some sort of PKE?) your I/O is valid and untampered with?

I think Lee meant tampering in a positive way: directly modifying your
own brain to be the sort of person you would like to be.

>> Is the point not appreciated by all and sundry that one
>> might be able to *choose* one's interests? As soon as
>> enough progress is made, why would someone play games?
>> Any games?
>
> http://venturebeat.com/2010/03/12/game-guru-sid-meier-explains-decades-of-second-guessing-egomaniacal-gamers/
>
> The short answer is that some people don't want to deal.
>
>> Right now, we're trapped by our ancient hardware into
>> being rewarded by some kinds of silly things:
>
> And somehow changing the hardware of this gilded cage makes it more acceptable? Think not.

We would be able to decide what we find rewarding rather than just
accept (or struggle against) what we are born with or develop.

>> Are you finding yourself curious about enough things?
>> Or curious enough? Curiosity itself is simple a certain
>> kind of brain behavior. As for me, I'm not sufficiently
>> curious about knitting or kayaking, though it would be
>> neat to experience going off Niagara Falls in a kayak,
>> now that I think of it. And there are lots of things
>> that don't begin with the letter "k" which I intend
>> to become curious about if I make it.
>
> Mental solipsistic masturbation. So the ultimate goal of this grand socio-technical experiment is so we can spend our time in a dynamic mountain cabin exploring our every whim of insanity. Pass.

We don't have to. We can do whatever we want - we would just have more
choices. It is like having lots of money: if you don't like it, you
can always give it away.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou