From: Chris Cooper (coop666@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 01:00:43 MDT
>Ok James, so what exactly is your ideal future scenario? If you insist on
>having some mystery left in the Universe I'm sure the Sysop will oblige
>you by modifying your memories and dumping you permanently into a simulated
>reality of medieval Europe. If you request such a thing of course.
Who says that isn't what has already happened? Perhaps we all became bored with
our god-like status, and asked to be dumped in his existence with no memories of
our past to haunt us. Maybe when someone figures out the secret to AI, we get to
get back into our old clothes, and push around subatomic particles again. (or
whatever it is that would be interesting to an SI...)
I think that James was just trying to make the point that human nature thrives
on the pursuit of the unknown, and that might be a hard thing to pursue when the
Sysop has already made everything known. It might be more fun for some
post-Singularity citizens to go outside the confines of the Sysop and experience
what the rest of the universe has to offer, even if the trade off is expiring in
some far-off cosmic event. If the Sysop won't allow that to happen, " for our
own good... ", well, then I guess we're screwed. If you thought it was hard to
argue with your parents when you were five, imagine when the Sysop says,
"...because I said so, that's why! ".
Come to think of it, a guarantee of complete immunity to harm would take the
fun out of lots of stuff. I'm not talking Russian Roulette here, just something
like mountain climbing. Everest isn't much of a challenge if you know that it
can't kill you. Eventually, no matter how many times you fall over the side, you
know you'll make it to the top if you are unable to die. Does kinda take the
challenge out of it, doesn't it?
Of course, I've never enjoyed playing computer games, for pretty much the same
reason. If all the Sysop scenario can offer is the best computer game ever, with
infinite "do overs ", I might be a little disappointed myself.
COOP
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