From: Joe Jenkins (joe_jenkins@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Sep 02 1998 - 12:01:05 MDT
---John Clark <jonkc@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> I had a similar idea a while back and wrote a post about it on
> March 15 1997.
Given your stand on identity and survival, it is still unclear to me
what survival utility you find in such a technology - and also what
survival utility you find in destructive upload technology.
I know you've been consistent here. At first, I was a little confused
because I had always assumed the characters in your fiction (about
copying and uploading) were portrayals of irrational people - not
yourself. It seems clear now that you were portraying your own
position which, given your stand on the issues of identity, is not
irrational.
In addition to John, I pose the following questions to anyone on the
list who wants to respond:
If non-destructive technology were available, would you choose to
upload and keep your biological self alive or terminate it?
If you choose to keep your biological self alive. Would you not
expect that eventually after many augmentations that biological/cyborg
self would see the limitations and inefficiency of living in the
physical world and want to upload into Homodigititus himself?
If yes, would you want this process to terminate the biological/cyborg?
If no, would you not expect that after sufficient divergence that that
biological/cyborg self would not feel the pressure of being a massive
resource wasting relic of the past because of his (living in the
physical world) status and want to upload himself?
If yes, do you not see a problem with this infinitely repeating cycle?
Then do you see some sort of logic in the madness?
Or, do you think there will always be a place in the
physical/non-uploaded world for sentient beings on the forefront of
posthuman competitiveness? Of course, I'm not trying to imply that
eventually nothing will exist in the physical world. And I do
recognize the importance of probes and sensors connected to uploaders
in real-time. But, I see artificial reality as being the place of
choice for all the movers and shakers of Posthumanity. I think
manipulation of the physical world will be mostly automated with
little real-time involvement from sentient beings of the Posthuman
rank. Thus, I see the above cycle as eventually coming to a halt as
the biological/cyborg realizes the error of his ways.
Joe Jenkins
joe_jenkins@yahoo.com
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