Re: Uploaded memories

Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Wed, 08 Dec 1999 12:29:16 -0500

Damien Broderick responds to Anders Sandberg:
> >There is enough space for huge populations of uploads in the solar
> >system, and if they are cautious about using resources there will
> >likely be enough memory space for extremely long lifetimes.
>
>This interests me greatly, because Robin Hanson objected a couple of years
>ago that my treatment of the Wonders of the Nano Future in THE SPIKE is
>inconsistent - I claimed that matter compilers and the like will
>permit/encourage a gift economy utopia (with a bit of luck), whereas the
>prospect of uploads (where I simultaneously take Robin's vivid
>extrapolations seriously) would put savage pressure on resources,
>foreclosing the former option. (I think that's what he was telling me.)

Anders seemed to be careful to say "if". I see very little chance that cheap fast upload copying technology would not be used to cheaply create so many copies that the typical copy would have an income near "subsistence" level. But I'd be interested to hear of contrary scenarios.

Your descendants, however, don't have to be anything like the typical upload copy. If you so choose to limit your copying, you might turn an initial nest egg into fabulous wealth, making your few descendants very rich and able to afford lots of memory.

Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323