Re: The Upload Economy

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
07 Oct 1997 12:39:19 +0200


YakWaxx@aol.com writes:

> Anders Sandberg wrote:
>
> > I assume you haven't yet read Robin Hanson's essay (If Uploads Come First,
> > http://sunsite.unc.edu/jstrout/uploading/hanson_uploads.html) about upload
> > economy? He seems to reach the same conclusion as you.
>
> And here's me thinking I'm original.

Since you didn't know about the essay, you were original in your own
thinking, although your conclusion was not original (or rather, partially
original - the essay doesn't deal with selling copies of parts of our
minds).

> > However, there are a lot of other things that can be traded: virtual
> > environments of differing complexity and uniqueness, access to the
> physical
> > world, knowledge and experiences.
>
> None of which are directly beneficial to you (unless someone agreed to copy
> you in return, although knowledge and experience may be a mild form of
> copying)

Huh? Why would they not be useful to me? If I decide I'm bored with the
immense fantasy VR world I inhabit and want (say) a tropical forest world
instead, I would definitely have a use for a VR world. And if I want to
build a private Game of Life universe in a jupiter brain, I would need
physical access and the necessary skills (which does not need to be
copied, I might just as well hire somebody) to do it.

> > Now you know why I want to become an open standard for information
> > gathering and organisation... :-)
>
> Better start submitting yourself to the ISO.

Judging from the standards they come up with, no thanks. Self mutilation
is not my thing. I would prefer the IETF.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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