From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Mar 17 2001 - 21:44:58 MST
On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, J. R. Molloy wrote:
> It matters because simulating misery has no justifiable principle, and
> simulated death (the fate of the simulacrums) does not correlate to
> satisfaction.
Nope, sorry. Once we reach the level where we drive our own self-evolution,
we *MUST* mutate "ourselves" (e.g. self-copies) and run those copies forward
along the time line to see if they are "better" versions. If the mutants have
appealing survival characteristics, you then load those changes back into your
"real" version. The degree to which you may self-evolve to a higher level may
depend crucially on your ability to endure your own self-induced misery. [Which is
precisely how it is today because if you feel your life is miserable, you are making
a clear choice to "feel" that way (whether you believe that statement or not
{because most of you won't} it *is* true). Your ability to "tolerate" any
self-perceived misery in your life presumably is one of the major factors
that keeps you from ending it.]
Now of course you don't "have" to participate in this sado-masochistic ritual.
But if you can't "bear" the thought of causing your self-copies misery, you will
most probably become economically marginalized and eventually suffer some fatal
accident (even in a nano-enhanced form). [One will probably live many thousands or
tens of thousands of years and most likely get pretty bored (unless boredom turns
out to be correctable by drugs or mind-"managing" nanobots).]
Bottom line:
Evolution is ruthless it doesn't care about "misery" it only cares about
successful designs. And in the universe, as I see it developing, its
going to be evolve, perish or become irrelevant.
The only advantage of "simulated" self-misery, is if you are doing it on yourself
you know you made the choice to be there and you know it isn't really "real".
(of course there may be times when you have to hide that fact from "yourself").
Robert
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