From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Tue Jul 24 2001 - 00:55:10 MDT
Mitch writes
>> [The Amish and their like will be left far behind.
>> Thus disparity (and diversity) will increase. Lee >>
> But not necessarily, more suffering, more frustration, more envy.
Oh quite right! In fact, even if the Amish and others are entirely
successful in preserving their ways of life, the temptation of
a mercifully offered nano-repair (or, if they're uploaded, the
temptation of a mercifully offered reset of some bad condition)
will be even more difficult for them to resist than electricity
and telephones.
> Its just that the human species clades-off, all the better to
> colonize what may be an "intellectually" dead universe. Contrary
> to the science fiction of the day, interstellar space will not
> be habitated by dreamy-eyed farm lads.
That's for sure. And I think it goes much further: any kind
of technology that we can today vividly imagine will be "farmboys"
in comparison to the trancendent matter that will do most of the
actual colonizing (i.e., conversion of dead matter everywhere
to life).
> Getting back to the uploads, issue; I suspect that if there is a chance at
> brain replacement surgery (as suggested by astrophysicist Michael Hart)
> people will hearken to this quicker, until the bugs get tested out of some
> neural net that will be the repository for a "decanted" human personality.
> Why I feel this may be so is because the philosophical, ship of Theseus
> (parts get replaced, now is this the same ship?), is at least, this is an
> older conceptual problem. At any rate that's what opinions are for, and the
> wild, woolly, ways of the world rule, not I. Which would you chose if you
> could, brain replacement or the net, 1st?
It matters not to me. Hopefully both! But if I have to choose---and
there are equal assurances of fidelity, of course---then I'd simply
choose the better deal, i.e., faster processing, more options for
growth, higher IQ, etc.
Lee
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