Re: Uploading - It's not all about you

Robin Hanson (hanson@econ.berkeley.edu)
Mon, 20 Jul 1998 16:17:48 -0700

Peter McCluskey writes:
> I am confident that someday objections to uploading will seem as silly
>as the fear that cameras steal people's souls, but I'm worried that
>prejudice against the first uploads will cause serious problems, and I
>suspect people like Harvey are worried about whether they will miss out
>on some important advantages to being one of the early uploads.
> Predictions about maturing upload societies seem less urgent than
>debates that may affect the rights of the first uploads.

There are reasons for prejudice, and there are excuses for prejudice. Whether an upload is "the same person" as a human seems more an excuse. The reasons would more depend on concerns about uploads taking away human jobs, beating humans on the battlefield, being insensitive to an ecological collapse, etc. I'd rather address reasons than excuses at this stage of the game.

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/ RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884 140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-2627