Re: Tragedy and Boredom was Re: Why just simulation? (fwd)

From: Nick Bostrom (nick@nickbostrom.com)
Date: Sat Mar 17 2001 - 18:35:20 MST


Robert Bradbury wrote:

>However the other part of this "if life was all happiness, people would become
>bored" raises interesting issues.

That sounds like nonsense to me.

In any case, we can say with absolute confidence is that boredom is not
going to be a problem. Boredom is an emotion and already we have means
(drugs etc.) that can reliably dispel boredom for extended periods (albeit
sometimes with side-effects). It is unthinkable that a jupiterbrain SI
wouldn't be able to figure out a way of avoiding the boredom emotion if it
chose to.

Nick Bostrom
Department of Philosophy
Yale University
Homepage: http://www.nickbostrom.com



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