From: John K Clark (jonkc@att.net)
Date: Sun May 14 2006 - 09:10:01 MDT
> suspending ones disbelief concerning morality in everyday life may well
> lead to a happier more fulfilling human life. However, once radical
> transhuman technologies arrive, this will no-longer be nescissarilly
> true.
I would think that for a transhuman morality would be even more important
than it is for us. If you are a Jupiter brain it would be critical to have a
good relationship with other Jupiter brains as a war between them would
likely be rather unpleasant for them and anything else in the universe.
> I define nihilist as 'one who holds no belief however
> widespread, not supported by proof'.
You seem to believe that your existence is better than your nonexistence,
and I'll bet you believe pleasure is better than pain, but I've not seen any
proof of that.
> A moral nihilist could have all your pleasurable states of mind by
> recognising this (as I do) and suspending his disbelief most of the time -
> without cleaving blindly to moralistic dogma.
That could be the explanation of the Fermi Paradox, the reason we can't find
any ET's. If it were possible to change your emotions to anything you
wanted, alter modes of thought, radically change your personality, swap your
goals as well as your philosophy of life at the drop of a hat it would be
very dangerous. Once you change yourself you may not want to change back,
even if your behavior became bizarre or suicidal.
Ever want to accomplish something but been unable to because it's difficult,
well just change your goal in life to something simple and do that; better
yet, flood your mind with a feeling of pride and self satisfaction and don't
bother accomplishing anything at all. Think all this is a terrible idea and
stupid as well, no problem, just change your mind (and I do mean CHANGE YOUR
MIND) now you think it's a wonderful idea.
Complex mechanisms don't do well in positive feedback loops, not
electronics, not animals, not people, not ET's and not even Jupiter brains.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:00:56 MDT