From: Max More (maxmore@primenet.com)
Date: Wed Feb 12 1997 - 10:16:53 MST
At 12:17 PM 2/12/97 +0100, Anders wrote:
>
>Moravec/Egan is as yet untestable (except through the dynamite
>headband method), but might become more reasonable once we are uploaded...
I talked with Hans Moravec while we were at a conference at the beginning
of the month. He's taking his Platonic view further now. Not only does he
feel cryonics to be pointless, he now finds uploading pointless too. He now
believes that you can find a mind in *any* object (yes, that wall over
there, this coffee cup) with a sufficiently clever interpretation. That
interpretation may be too hard for us to discover so we may not converse
with that mind, but the mind nevertheless exists.
His Platonism ends up leading him into a position that, I believe, is
suicidal. Beware bad philosophy!
Once Mind Age appears, I'd like to write a rebuttal of his view. I'd hate
to see Moravec perish by taking distorted abstractions too seriously!
Max
Max More, Ph.D.
more@extropy.org
http://www.primenet.com/~maxmore
President, Extropy Institute, Editor, Extropy
exi-info@extropy.org, http://www.extropy.org
(310) 398-0375
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