UPL: Skeletal Plan

Twink (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Sat, 22 Nov 1997 15:43:33 -0500 (EST)


In an effort to move forward to a concrete plan to uplift a nonhuman
to sentience, I've made the following list.

0. Explicate Goal
0.1 explicate main goal
0.2 differentiate subgoals
1. Get data on extant types.
1.1 genetics
1.2 behavior
1.3 reproduction
1.4 development/life cycle
1.5 handling
2. Create Selection Criteria.
2.1 genetics
2.2 beahvior
2.3 reproduction
2.4 development/life cycle
2.5 handling
2.6 projected costs
3. Get/Create Modification Methods
3.1 genetic
3.2 hormonal
3.3 surgery
3.4 machine interface
4. Get/Create Tests
4.1 research and modify existing intelligence tests
4.2 get and modify tests from ethology studies in 1.2
4.3 develop new tests
5. Implement Modifications
6. Test Modifications
7. Iterate Steps 3 through 6 until 0 is met or funding runs out:)

This is a preliminary and I offer it in hopes it will be improved.
Obviously, the steps listed need to be explicated.

Right now, though we've discussed many different steps
above, the main focus has been on step 0. The main
goal is "achieving sentience in a nonhuman species."
(Any debate here?) One subgoal is "making the non-
human species capable of language in the human
sense -- though not necessarily human in at its details."

We have discussed other steps, such as 2,3, and 4,
though not in detail. I suggest we move the discussion
along to step 1 and after. (Step 1 and 2 kind of feed
back into each other. One might list out potential
candidates -- as Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin <warrl@blarg.net>
did on 19971116 post, but this pressupposed some
criteria. I tend to think that we should, for now, settle
on Octopoda and use step 2 to decide on which
species.)

Note: I am proposing we actually do this, not discuss
it in hopes that the tecnogenie will carry out our
bidding. (Progress is what we make happen!) Is
anyone truly interested in participating at this time
in an actual uplift?

Daniel Ust