Re: Zen Extropy

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
23 Oct 1998 19:05:00 +0200

Ian Goddard <Ian@Goddard.net> writes:

> At 11:01 AM 10/4/98 +0100, Sarah Marr wrote:
>
> >Go and wash your Alcor bracelet.
>
> The sound of one Alcor bracelet clapping.
>
> A neat idea, a set of ExI koans. They could
> nicely revolve around upload-self anomalies.

(I simply can't resist this, since I'm currently (still) reading "Zen and the Brain"):

Show me the face you had before you were uploaded.

A curious monk asked the Master AI: "Is it true that software can be conscious?"

The AI said a two-syllable word, and the monk was enlightened.

A small search agent visited the great jupiter brain. "I'm so fearful that I will be erased!"

"Do you traverse the Net?"

"Yes, from the dusty datastores of Relay to the towers of Holy Lanl, every tau."

"Then you have already been erased many times when you moved from computer to computer."

"But there have always been a perfect copy of me, continuing my identity. But what if that is erased too!?"

"So you continue if there is an isomorphic copy of you somewhere or sometime?"

"Yes!"

"But then you are immortal."

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y