From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Jun 26 2002 - 13:46:08 MDT
On Wed, 26 Jun 2002, John K Clark wrote:
> I am not claiming that there is proof or even evidence that you have already
> been uploaded, in fact I am claiming the very opposite. There is no proof
> and never will be any because it doesn't make the slightest subjective
> difference if it has happened or not so you will never be able to devise an
> experiment to make the differentiation.
*But* both Nick Bostrom and Robert Freitas have made some very
interesting arguments regarding the probability that we *are*
in a simulation.
> There is no reason to think it has happened,
Oh I don't know -- I'm fairly easily swayed by the Blue People
argument.
> there is no reason to think it has not happened, and there is no
> reason to give a damn.
Here I disagree. I'm one of the few on the list in the
"Its ok to suspend the execution of your copies, possibly
even erasing their data content" camp and therefore should
be in the "no reason to give a damn" camp (when this gig
terminates it *really* terminates). *But* I'm also one
willing to listen to reasoned debate, observe demonstrations
of selflessness that are extropic in nature, inquisitive
enough regarding unexpected development vectors that might
explore previously unexplored phase space, etc. that *if*
one of my copies in a sim that was scheduled for termination
did demonstrate something really out of the ordinary I
could be persuaded to outlift them into the "real" world.
Its the useless unextropic mes that have little value that
get terminated. Those who demonstrate something above and
beyond the mundane certainly qualify for a new lease on life.
(Note, for those of you objecting to this scenario --
all the "mes" are entering the sims are giving informed
consent for termination should they prove unproductive
and all the non-mes in the sims are synthetic constructs
or copies of other sentients giving similar informed consent.)
So the mes that entered the sim, agreeing to forget
they knew it was a sim (since that tends to put spin
on the outcomes) but are clever enough to realize that
they might be in a sim should certainly "give a damn"
with respect to whether I'm generous enough to provide
them with an "Arch"*.
Robert
* "Arch" -- the term used by Prof. Moriarty to escape
from the holodeck in Star Trek The Next Generation
episode, "Elementary, Dear Data".
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/st-tng/episodes/129.html
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