On Sunday, August 22, 1999 12:13 AM phil osborn <philosborn@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> I wasn't argueing against computers having orgasms.
But Phil Osborn's Tuesday, August 17, 1999 6:11 PM post was: "Cybersex between a computer and human in a virtual reality suit would make sense but between two computers????"
That kind of led me to believe he meant that computers and presumably
anything running on a computer -- such as an uploaded personality -- having
orgasms is questionable. If this _was_ not Phil's position, then I've
misread
him here, though only slightly.:)
> I just haven't heard
> any indication that anyone in the discussion knows what an orgasm is.
> Again, if you examine the analogy I presented, you will find some rather
> close parallels, but it is not nearly as trivial an analogy as you have
> apparently concluded. Without going into the really necessary detail:
I will NOT claim to be an expert in what orgasms are. At best, I know a bit about them from having experienced them quite often.:):):) However, Robert Bradbury answers this in another post, so I need not repeat what he's said.
But getting back to uploaded people and AI having sex and orgasms (what is sex with an orgasm? A waste of time?:), I don't know how much detail one needs to understand a giving phenomena to upload it. If uploading, at first, is merely making an isomorphic model of a biobrain on a computer, then there might be little need to understand much about how orgasms or arousal or an appreciation of this debate works. Instead, we might just copy over the contents and make sure the computer can make the local changes that biobrains make -- viz., having simulated inputs and simulated neuron firings.
Of course, I think that will only be the first attack on the problem. Who would want to upload merely to run a faster copy of their current mind? Many, but quite a few would want to improve things. I, for one, would like to remove bad parts of my personality. For instance, my argumentative attitude.:)
(Of course, Anders and others have knowledge of this, while I'm merely speculating based on a few things I've read here and there.)
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://mars.superlink.net/neptune/