From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue May 01 2001 - 12:42:41 MDT
Jim Fehlinger wrote:
>
> But how many of us can really objectively believe that we
> embody a pattern so unique and valuable that we couldn't
> be replaced by one of the other six billion humans on
> the planet (or some pattern synthesized from the "types"
> they represent) without making a dent in the history of the
> Cosmos? That's not to say it wouldn't be fun to be along
> for the ride, but that's different -- it's a question of,
> well, entertainment.
There's another difference between this Earth and an Earth in which we
have been replaced by six billion arbitrary humans - the latter Earth has
undergone a major extinction event which violated the rights of six
billion individuals. Even if the future outcome is more or less the same
(which it almost certainly would be, from a high-level perspective), the
total history of the latter Universe is less desirable.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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