From: John McNamara (harlequin@novastar.org)
Date: Thu Dec 03 2009 - 15:58:58 MST
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 21:29, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp@gmail.com> wrote:
> 2009/12/4 John McNamara <harlequin@novastar.org>:
>
>> Most humans are only content to accept the "existential risk" of
>> _gradual_ destructive copying because that's all we've experienced
>> during our evolutionary history.
>>
>> We have no experience of instant destructive copying as a species and
>> its is therefore quite reasonable that one of the common varied
>> reactions to it is going to be some level of apprehension or fear.
>>
>> Assuming our species (assuming we bother staying as a coherent
>> species) has been exposed to, and widely uses, instant destructive
>> copying for a subjectively long time we will undoubtedly display a
>> significantly changed range of reactions to the idea.
>
> Isn't this a bit like fear of flying?
> --
> Stathis Papaioannou
>
sort of , yes
my interest in this thread is to point out that the anticipatory
thought processes of informed humans considering any form of upload
will be varied and it is not good science to dismissively lump them
into 2 categories "the rational" and "the soul biased".
some will be eager
some will be ambivalent
some will specifically fear losing their soul
some will subconsciously specifically fear losing their soul
some will be cautious in principle
some will see the instant upload as a logical illusion
etc etc
I'm guessing you mention 'fear of flying' specifically because of its
reputation for average people to illogically assign it a much higher
level of risk than than the data shows. They should logically have a
greater fear of road travel but few do.
However, ability to rationally calculate risk accurately is only part
of the question
If ones logical objection is to the destruction of the physical brain
that enters an instant upload booth, then the fact that the
probability of the booth working as designed is 100% or 99.999999%
doesn't matter.
irrationally calculated risk of flying doesn't map to logical
objections to events that 100% likely to occur.
Best Regards
John Mc Namara
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