From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Fri Jul 13 2001 - 01:50:08 MDT
Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> When you're uploaded you can do interesting stuff like: back yourself
> up, then shut yourself down and leave instructions for the OS to wake
> you back up with no memory of being uploaded, and place you into a
> Real-Earth (tm) sim. Then when you finally kill yourself you wake up
> with your upload-experience memories back intact. In other words it
> should theoretically be possible for you to both be safe, AND get the
> kind of honest experience you claim to enjoy.
I'm not too sure about this, unless the reverted self agrees with the
statement "If, hypothetically, I'm the result of an upload deciding to
revert, then I'd rather not go back until I'm done with what I'm here
for." Otherwise, the past (future?) self's wishes may have no impact on
the fact that there is currently a sentient being who wills to wake up and
doesn't want to be in the Matrix.
I think that if you really wanted this kind of experience, a much simpler
solution would be to figure out what it feels like to risk death, then set
up your emotional bindings so that you feel the same revulsion and horror
at the thought of a simulated death as you would at the thought of a real
death.
Even that seems too anthropomorphic, really... isn't there something
better to do with our time than Pacing The Confines Of The Cage after
we've left?
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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