From: John Marlow (johnmarlow@gmx.net)
Date: Wed May 30 2001 - 01:36:08 MDT
GAAK!
Or, to be more specific: Quite aside from the matter of wanting a
backup copy that won't be fried by a hardware/software glitch or
massive emp...this is one of those touchy-feely issues some folks
feel strongly about but can't really verbalize. Kind of like those
people who feel that manned space exploration is preferable to the
far less expensive, less complex, and more rapidly-achievable
unmanned exploration of space and, in particular, of other worlds.
I'm one of those people. And in both cases, my stock response (quite
literal for both parties and meaning no offense) is this:
If you gotta ask, there's no explaining it to you.
jm
-- On 29 May 2001, at 22:38, Chris Ledwith wrote: > Hi, > I am new to this list but I've been aware of transhumanism for > nearly a year now, and have been slowly adding it to my worldview. > I've been thinking about the subject of uploading, and the > reluctance of many on this list to destroy themselves after the > superior copy is made. At first I had the same feelings. But after > giving it much thought, my question is, why? It seems to me that > this desire to preserve oneself is an unfortunate hang-up in our > programming (survival is so heavily integrated into our experience of > consciousness, perhaps because consciousness rose out of the > survival instinct and environmental pressures of pre-history). But > this hang-up ought to be capable of overcoming by people as > forward-thinking as many of you are. After all, some are proposing > the deletion of certain emotions or attitudes that they feel are > limitations they've acquired either genetically or environmentally, so > why is this any different? I mean, how could ingesting a suicide pill > and then taking a nap not be considered a valid option, since the > copy (which for all intents and purposes is you; or rather, you have > no more intrinsic value than your copy; calling the other a 'copy' is > purely incidental really) will carry on in your absence with all the > same characteristics, and achieve all the same things, or much > greater. In other words, SO WHAT if it's NOT you; it IS you -- this > is something our minds have trouble accepting since there's no > precedent for such thinking. Now, in my view, this is very different > >from committing suicide in the present -- suicide, in the old sense > (pre-upload technology) is something I would never do, even though > I don't fear death. However, knowing that a being which is 'exactly > me' would carry on seems sufficient to me to end my own > existence. And why shouldn't it? I will feel no pain, no sense of > loss, if I am say, in the middle of a nap when the pill does its work. > Even if I'm wide awake as I die, the experience of death would only > last an instant and then that experience would be lost forever > anyhow. > > -Chris L. > John Marlow
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