From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Thu Aug 16 2001 - 06:37:42 MDT
Samantha commented on my comment regarding whose hands the
"blood of billions" shall stain and whether any of them/us
will be around in need of absolution (you can see my Catholic
background showing here...).
While I understand your point Samantha, I believe my fears
and your fears lie in different areas. I'm less afraid of
nanotech and more afraid of amoral AIs than you probably
are (correct me if this is incorrect). I also don't believe
I would want to live in a world managed by any kind of
intelligent SysOp (no matter how friendly). That probably
derives from my growing up in Massachusetts, right next
to the "Live free or die" state of New Hampshire. There
are also the Tea Party & Concord Green incidents that are
part of my heritage. You can take the boy out of Boston
but can't take the Boston out of the boy.
However, I don't view our perspectives as mutually exclusive
given the current state of the universe (lots of matter
and energy for constructing things and lots of physical
"space" that can be allocated for security zones). So
it seems like both of our visions are realizable. However
what doesn't seem realizable to me is the "resurrection"
of those whose information content is irretrievably lost.
We may be able to recreate a reasonable facsimile of Sasha,
one that I can even "believe" is him, but in my heart I
will always question how close it can be to the original.
The blood of billions *will* be on the hands of those arguing
against cryonics whether or not the reanimations or recreations
are done with or without either nanotech or the SysOp.
Robert
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