From: O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Date: Tue Jun 22 1999 - 21:56:14 MDT
Dr Bates wrote:
> the only hard problem, IMHO, is keeping all the philosophers who want to
> waste our lives talking about the hard problem instead of solving the
> series
> of "easy" problems, which is all there really is.
>
> This "hard problem" phrase is really just an ambit claim for high
> intellectual ground, ie., "oh yes, but you biopsych's only study the
> non-hard problem ..."
>
[blah snipped]
Tell that you would *personally* consider uploading - copying self to
machine then chopping up original body for dogfood - without someone first
assuring you, beyond all doubt, that it really would be you in that
computer. I wouldn't, but then I'm entirely ego driven.
I find it intensely interesting that the "hard problem" is actually moving
from the domain of the esoteric philosophy to that of a concrete, real world
problem which desperately needs to be resolved. It may be that uploading
needs to become possible before the problem can be solved; then we have
something of an experimental paradigm available.
Emlyn
Hint: Don't upload the rodents as test, Tranhuman models. That's what
they've been waiting for...
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