Emlyn writes:
> If I was in a position to be cryonically suspended (which I don't think I am
> in Oz), I think I would make it very, very clear that I *volunteer* for the
> first uploading experiments. All the better if the general public thinks I'm
> dead, it is likely to be very difficult to organise if you fit the more
> commonly accepted definition of being alive. I would hope that someone alive
> at the time of the experiments actually gave a damn about me, and where I
> eventually ended up, but if not, well, I'd still rather be on the front
> line. Exploit me, I don't care; becoming one of the first few Posthumans has
> got to come with a price tag. And ye gods, the payoff...
But can this be considered *informed* consent? You don't know anything
about the procedure, you don't know what the risks are. Would you
volunteer if there was a 99%+ chance that your brain would simply be
destroyed and we'd get some partial information out of it, that might
guide future uploads? Would you volunteer if there was a large chance
that a successful upload would be inordinately unpleasant, full of
sensory deprivation, madness and pain?
At best, someone considering using an old cryonic suspension patient for
these experiments would need to see a full legal document, laying out all
possible circumstances, and describing whether the patient would permit
the experiment in each case. Even then it is questionable whether the
subject could fully understand the ramifications of what he is agreeing
to, without having up to date information on the details of the procedure.
I believe a superior approach, if you want subjects for a destructive
upload, would be to use people on their deathbeds. Promise to pay
their families millions of dollars if they agree; give them all kinds
of documentation on the procedure and the possible consequences, good
and bad. Give them tomes by philosophers and ethicists which will debate
whether an upload could be alive, whether it would be the "same" person
as them, whether it would suffer or rejoice at its new life.
In this way you can get fully informed consent to the procedure, and you
can probably get a brain which is in much better shape than dragging out
a decades old cryonics patient from the 20th century.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:38 MDT