Re: [sl4] Uploading (was : goals of AI)

From: John McNamara (harlequin@novastar.org)
Date: Wed Dec 02 2009 - 05:54:46 MST


On Wed, Dec 2, 2009 at 04:02, Matt Mahoney <matmahoney@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Surely everyone recognizes my question as nonsense.

Actually my first thought was, this is the "Haze the new guy" question :-]

> The more important question is: what will it take to convince you to shoot yourself?

same as now
possibly extreme depression or pain
possibly altruistic heroics to save others

but nothing to do with sl4 upload tech i have ever heard would convince me

> The answer surely depends on the process by which the upload is created, even if the end result is the same. There can not be an "appearance" of death,

exactly
I wouldn't tolerate any hint of death as i wish to completely avoid it
the best strategic way to do that is a nice slow migration to new hardware
anything else would make it much easier for me to be tricked into a
"copy and shoot" style upload.

> So naturally we value continuity of experience, and continuity of the physical body, even though rationally it makes no difference.

makes no rational difference to what exactly ?
crime statistics ?
If it were possible to design and run an upload clinic that performed
"copy and shoot" uploads on clients and deliberately lied and told
everyone that we were in fact doing an "instant migration". Only one
person knows how it operates and the truth is never discovered.

Are we using clever marketing or running a slaughter house ?
I say slaughter house
Lack of evidence doesn't mean the crime didn't occur

>Having two copies exist at the same time destroys the illusion.
>For a similar reason, it is important that nobody else can tell the difference between >you and your copy. Otherwise they would believe the upload failed and not try it >themselves.
>It doesn't make any difference to your copy if the memories are different or not, >because it would be unaware of any differences.

These would also be your objectives if you were planning to murder me
and replace me with an exact duplicate that would fool everyone
(except you of course because you have special knowledge).

Say you do murder me and replace me with a duplicate good enough to
fool everyone.
You know I was murdered. Say you too die one day taking the secret to
your grave. Am I now "unmurdered" ?

> It's an important question because the technology is coming.

I would imagine that the technology for "slow migratory uploads" would
be widely used and mature before "instant brain photocopy" style
technology. It's effectively life-extension which is in progress
already.

"The first uploads won't be very accurate"
worst marketing slogan ever :-]

Best Regards
John McNamara



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