From: Matt Mahoney (matmahoney@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 25 2008 - 14:27:08 MDT
--- On Thu, 9/25/08, Nick Tarleton <nickptar@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The desire not to die causes us to want to produce
> copies of ourselves with
> > the same memories, goals, behavior, and appearance, to
> be turned on after we
> > die. (Whether such a copy transfers your consciousness
> and becomes "you" is
> > an irrelevant philosophical question).
> >
>
> It's not irrelevant to my preferences.
> http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/08/computations.html
> http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/08/unnatural-categ.html
Belief in consciousness is universal, as is the desire to preserve it. Therefore you will make a copy of your mind, technology permitting. Whether that copy actually contains your consciousness or just makes that claim is irrelevant to any future observable events.
(Also, how do the above articles relate to this position?)
> The fitness function is not fixed.
> http://www.nickbostrom.com/fut/evolution.html
Bostrom does not seem to offer any good alternatives. In any case, he implicitly assumes that certain forms of intelligence, what he calls eudaemotic (with human-like motivations and "conscious") are preferable to other types. That is understandable, but it is not our choice to have that preference. It is an evolved trait of humans.
-- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com
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