Re: Flesh: what is it good for?

Geoff Busker (gbusker4604@VAX2.Winona.MSUS.EDU)
Thu, 05 Sep 1996 22:15:59 -0500

> On Wed, 4 Sep 1996 Tim_Robbins@aacte.nche.edu wrote:
> > As for uploading and becoming von neuman machines.
> > Honestly, am I the only extropian who likes the flesh?
> > Maybe I should form a faction of tech fiends who are
> > sleazy enough to appreciate the aesthetics and primal joy
> > of a fit sweaty body.
>
> Ouch, a bio-lover! Come, cybergnostic paladins! We must upload a > heathen!
> :-)
>
> > Maybe I'm just an immortalist who
> > thinks the whole universe should be our domain. I guess I
> > wouldn't mind being able to have alternate _identities_ of
> > man, machine, cyborg, virtual entity--but I certainly don't
> > want to be constrained to one.
>
> I agree with you, although I will probably base my existence on being a
> highly portable information-structure with no fixed physical location or
> body. I have a certain distaste for *having* to live in the flesh; I want
> to live in a comfortable and useful body, without having to deal with the
> vagaries of evolution.
>
> But I really understand that many are not as interested in abandoning
> their biological bodies; they have their charm too.

Why does being living in a virtual world have to preclude living in the
"real" world? Why not create a virtual-real-world inside of the virtual
world. The actions in the virtual-real-world would correspond to
actions made by a robot in the real world and as a result you could do
any real-world work that needed to be done while still staying in a
virtual world. It seems to me a system like that would allow for
continued interaction in the real world while seamlessly continuing to
exist in a virtual world.

One thing I don't understand is why anyone could possibly want to live
in the physical real-world when they could have the chance to have their
wildest dreams come true in a virtual world. In a virtual world there
are no laws of physics! A person in a virtual world would be able to do
anything in any way in any form they wanted to be in. There would be no
limits to the experiences which could be had or the accomplishments
which could be made! Uploaded beings would think much faster than
fleshy beings and would therefore be able to accomplish anything that
can be accomplished in the real world in a tiny fraction of the time!

What would space exploration mean if people could be uploaded? Couldn't
any of the current unmanned space probes that are currently in use be
used to ferry uploaded beings to the far reaches of the galaxy? Isn't
the major limiting factor on space travel today the problem of
sustaining the life of fleshy, oxygen-breathing, limited-life-span
humans? If we get rid of the flesh we get rid of the barriers.

With all these things going for virtual worlds and uploading, I have a
hard time comprehending how anyone would want to choose the limited,
constrained life of a fleshy, oxygen breathing, limited-life-span human.

I would shed my flesh in a second if I ever had the chance to be
uploaded into a virtual world.

---
Onward!
Geoff Busker  <gbusker4604@vax2.winona.msus.edu>