From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Fri Jun 13 1997 - 00:19:18 MDT
On Thu, 12 Jun 1997, Abraham Moses Genen wrote:
> Dear fellow extropians,
> At the severe risk of being considered regressive, I believe that the
Uniformity is evolutionary detrimental, hence variety of views an
intrinsically Good Thing on its own right.
> pleasure of learning should be given full consideration before we
> abandon the joy (and even pain) of slowly accumulating knowledge and
Pain and joy are also just variables in the uploader universe. In fact,
careful management of one's emotional R&P circuits should form a pretty
formidable problem for the uploaders. Morphing knowledge into you can be
arbitrarily slow, and can be associated with any kind of pleasure you like.
> formulating ideas through continuous cognitive development.
> Although the idea of an intellectual implant that gives us an instant
> lifetime of knowledge and pleasure might have its merits, the depth of
Implanting designed knowledge modules (coco - common coding) into a messy
GA-grown appears very very difficult. I guess a mature uploader will be a
chimaeric, hybridic thing, made from brittleware logic blocks, and messy
GA/ANN stuff. Capability of swapping blocks of experience/knowledge (memetic
crossover/passing a piece of mind) more or less casually appears a
worthwhile trait, intituitively. But obviously, us worrying about the
properties of uploaders is mice talking about motivations and properties
of the two-legged towering beings. Things will be vastly _different_ in
uploader space. The longer I think about it, the more conservative
pockets in the digital darwin universe appear nonviable. A fraction of
uploaders will suddenly zoom off in a fast-forward development. As their
activities, both in simulated, and physical space will appear
incomprehensible to those left behind, they mind appear as random natural
forces.
I don't know how you feel about it, but I'd rather be a former, than the
formed.
> emotion and the spirit of humanism that might be lacking under those
> conditions should give us some pause for further consideration. Is
> knowledge worth having without at least some effort and passion?
Knowledge is a key factor of a future fitness function. The way you gain
it are not really relevant.
> A.M. Genen
ciao,
'gene
P.S. Concerning why death has not been optimized away by evolution: death
is an integral part of darwinian evolution. Had it not been there right
from the start, death would have emerged very soon. There will be lots of
death in central zones of neomoravecian noosphere light cone.
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