"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
> >
> > I would also point out, once again, that a believe it is
> > possible for the essence of you to jump substrate at all is
> > grounds for something that looks very much like a
> > technologically backed doctrine of the soul and even soul
> > migration and possible reincarnation. I embrace those
> > implications, you would demean others who believe something like
> > this is possible on different grounds than you do.
>
> No offense, but isn't that sort of like saying that the omniscience of
> Google proves that Google is God? We may joke about it, but I'd be rather
> disturbed to see somebody taking it seriously.
I don't see how this says anything about what I was speaking of.
If the essence of you can be not only preserved but uploaded and
partially or wholly downloaded into other bodies then this is
very
much like the notion of a "soul" that inhabits this body and
that
can survive the end of this body. It is a technological means
by
which this old dream/vision/wish can be made real.
As Google is not in the least omniscient or even sentient I fail
to see that this joke is applicable. I am talking about a very
different and far less bogus parallel that I find interesting.
> As den Otter once said:
> "The undefinable is the undefinable, the universe is the universe,
> infinity is infinity. Using the term "God" to describe any or all of
> these things is simply not very practical." I would add that Google is
> Google, a Sysop is a Sysop, an SI is an SI, and uploading is uploading.
>
So what? We do not know the full implications of Sysop, SI or
uploading. So it is premature to say that all the yearning
toward transcendence and thinking about what that might be like
before us was simply mistaken and a waste and has nothing of any
importance or relevance in it.
> I tend to be confident about my ability to handle what goes on in my head,
> but I don't mess with social group polarization, I don't mess with
> attaching moral valency to predictions (learned that the hard way), and I
> don't mess with religious analogies. I tend to regard these things as the
> cognitive equivalent of sticking your head in a microwave oven.
I tend to regard disowning hard questions using absurd analogies
as the equivalent of sticking your head in the oven and lighting
a match. <g>
- samantha
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:42 MDT