On Tue, 2 Nov 1999 hal@finney.org wrote:
> Billy Brown writes:
>
> > If primitive sentient life has value then allowing primitives to die
> > while they struggle towards understanding is immoral.
>
> The next step in this slippery slope is to say that the aliens are here,
> silently monitoring us, but as each person dies they take a snapshot of
> his brain state and take him off to live a new life elsewhere, one free
> of trouble and pain, until they can be rejoined with their loved ones.
>
All they require is sufficient storage for the offline copies. That of course raises an interesting question -- with a saved mind copy, you may be obligated to "preserve" it, but are you obligated to "run" it?
Robert