From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Mar 26 2003 - 13:04:40 MST
On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 11:31:52AM -0500, John K Clark wrote:
> I'd like to hear the opinion of some of the very bright people
> on this list, do you think Saddam Hussein is alive?
It doesn't matter, because he has in some sense transcended.
Apparently he has delegated command (this is inferred from
strategy and al-Jazeera analysis, so it is not certain of course)
to his generals. Normally this would be suicidal for any dictator
to do, and Saddam previously ran the standard ultra-centralized
approach to government. But in his current situation this would
actually delay the inevitable, and maybe give him time to get to
his secret moonbase or whatever. If he can just keep out of sight
he will be as invisible and invincible as Osama. He better not
leave any smoking shoes on the slopes of Etna, of course... [Ob
classicist reference]
To get this back into transhumanism (after all, otherwise this
issue shouldn't even be discussed on this list): This kind of
"immortality by delegation" is actually interesting from a
functionalist perspective. If you are defined by your function,
by what you do, then you could actually be replaced by another
external system doing the same functions. This is really what
uploading is about. But as my colleauges have pointed out, why
not replace myself by a set of very good actors? These actors
would learn everything relevant about the behavior and
motivations of me, and eventually take my place. My own argument
against this is of course that many of my internal processes
which are only (and can only be) privately known such as my
consciousness, would not be transferred in such a scheme. But if
I did not regard these processes as relevant, or thought that a
bad upload-copy was better than no upload, then it might make
sense. Similarly with Saddam; by having enough people acting as
if he was alive and according to his will, he is in some sense
uploaded within the social matrix of Iraq.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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