From: Stephen de Vries (PHEN@wwg3.uovs.ac.za)
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 08:09:21 MDT
As I see it, imortalists can be divided into two groups: those who
want to live on through there current minds and/or bodies, and those
who don`t care how the "I" fits into the picture as long as the
descendants are "better" than the current version of "I".
I lurch into the latter categorie, my loyalty lies with neg-entropy
and complexity. Self sacrifice in the face of a humanity threatening
AI is not part of this belief system, (self-sacrifice is never an
option), but neither is standing in the way of developing a
superior intelligent technology ("Artificial" and "Sinthetic" are
emotively biased terms). People generally like the idea of growing
bigger brains, as long as these are biological based and not anything
as drastic as growing intelligences in a neural net (in-silico).
But I digress, the argument between the two groups is routed in the
identification of "I".
<Beware, amature metaphysics follows>
"I" am not as small as my body + brain + mind, the only thing that is
in essence me, is the "life force" which permeates all that is alive.
NOTE: "Life force" is my metaphor, please feel free to customize it
to your personnal imagery. BTW some call it 2.67, which is a
critical ratio betwean order and chaos in A-life experiments.
The life force is all that I can recognize to be at the center of
"me", so my loyalty lies with it, not my current body, mind or
thoughts.
<End of amature metaphysics section>
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Stephen de Vries
www.geocities.com/athens/7415
"Some will fall in love with life and drink it from a fountain
that is falling like an avalanche coming down a mountain"
- The Butthole Surfers
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