> > Nicholas seems to be on the side of the Borg, whereas
> > personally I'm for the Armadillos; I can think of few things worse
> > than being the only entity in the universe.
>
> This wasn't my take on Nicholas' scenario. Everyone lives in VR, and
> nobody is allowed out into the physical world. So life would indeed have
> some limitations. But this is far from a Borg collective. The individual
> lives of people within the VR could be as diverse and varied as under any
> such scenario.
Yes, that was what I had in mind.
> Actually, Nicholas' scenario could be adjusted to allow people to "go
> native" and live out in the real world, as long as they were restricted
> from access to technology which could threaten the computers running the
> VR where everybody lives. A few die-hard realists living on a south seas
> island (who insist on walking on *real sand*, not the VR stuff that just
> *seems* real) wouldn't bother anyone.
Good point.
> Still, Nicholas' idea can hardly be considered consistent with principles
> of non-coercion, especially in the early days when people are rounded up to
> be vaporized (and uploaded).
Yes, there would be this one point of violation of individual
rights. As we all should know, the fit between ideology and reality
is seldom perfect; and it's the latter's fault but the former's
problem.
------------------------------------------------
Nicholas Bostrom
bostrom@ndirect.co.uk
*Visit my transhumanist web site at*
http://www.hedweb.com/nickb