From: Emlyn (onetel) (emlyn@one.net.au)
Date: Wed Jul 19 2000 - 19:15:56 MDT
Hal wrote:
> Robin -
> > I was toying with putting together a simple game theory model of who
went
> > how low in this probability, as a function of preferences over having
> > lots of copies. It would be a cute problem, but I just don't have the
time
> > now - perhaps another day.
>
> I wonder if you or Emlyn could explain why you want lots of copies.
>
I don't necessarily want lots of copies. What am interested in is
continuing.
If there is this effect of first-uploaded-best-dressed, it could mean
substantia difficulty for those not in the first wave; maybe even being at
the mercy of the first wave deciding who gets uploaded and who is worm food.
I'm not so interested in being in that situation.
I think this scenario is pretty ugly. But if it is realistic, then so must
we be.
> What about the fact that in your scenario, the quality of life of uploads
> is arguably much worse than for the rest of the world? Why would you
> want to create countless copies of yourself which could find themselves
> mired in bonded servitude or even slavery, deprived of human rights,
> struggling with subsistence wages, facing a life of boredom as even
> the simplest advances or changes in society take subjective centuries
> to unfold? It sounds like a pretty miserable existence.
It is, however, existence. Might be better than the alternatives.
Ask Eliezer whether he thinks you'd be bound like this for long. If I had a
lot of copies of myself out there, I'd bet they'd all be pretty cranky too.
The key might be to work out a system of covert communication signals for
yourself well before any cryo situation. Like "If I wake up as an upload,
then any message which abnormally contains a reference to 637 is a signal
from me". If you've ever written a forking process in Unix, you have to
think like the code in that situation; hmm, I'm a copy, which one am I, and
how do I talk to the others?
Emlyn
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