[ExI] Bodies

[Giulio Prisco]

Great article Max, it is interesting to see how in 1993 you
anticipated many of the issues which today are routinely discussed in
virtual worlds interest groups -- for example in the last couple of
days there has been a very interesting uploading discussion on the
Second Life Educators list, see the Apocalyptic AI thread here:
https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/educators/2010-March/thread.html

If Nozick's "experience machine" is basically TV on steroids, Second
Life and other VR worlds show promise of becoming, as you say, "real"
VR worlds  "like the physical world, except that here magic is
routine. Words and gestures can change the environment and transport
you instantly between virtual locations. Vastly more configurable than
the natural world, this kind of virtual world seems capable of
supporting at least as wide a range of activities as the physical
realm... You might also have some contact with the external physical
world"

Seeing the current evolution of technology it appears that VR worlds
will become sensorially indistinguishable from external reality in one
or two decades. And all of the tininge you mention in the passage
quoted, _including_ the last sentence about contact with the external
physical world, will still be available to uploads once uploading tech
is developed. So, uploads will have the option to live at least as
fully as we do, and possibly much more.


On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 4:36 PM, Max More <max at maxmore.com> wrote:
> I had some thoughts on the issue of whether virtual worlds implied losing
> contact with the physical world and our bodies that I put forth in a talk
> back in 1993:
>
> http://www.maxmore.com/virtue.htm
>
> Max
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>