The whole "consiousness in a machine" idea, whether or not it's possible... there may be some highly desirable consciousnesses to have perpetuated in machine form, but it's likely that equivalant benefit could be had from an approximation and with less problems. This is from the viewpoint where a machine is something someone uses, I guess if you accrue a bunch of smart ones, in order to have learned advisors throughout history that you can talk to.
I wonder if at some point there is an experiential overload, where consiousness deteriorates-- seems like that could happen. It's bad enough that a more or less deterministic computer hangs and crashes, do you really want one going crazy, or one with cyber-alzheimers?
So you opt to have your consciousness uploaded, you have to pay for storage, processing, energy. You have to do stuff, go to work, to pay for the continued operation of your consciousness. You get orders "dream this, think of this, operate this gizmo through this interface". Your rent goes up, you are working round the clock. What are you going to do, revolt? Consciousnesses are a dime a dozen, pally-- you get your service discontinuation notice, it hovers there, in your mind's eye, which of course is all you have.
You want to scream, hold the phone... there is a *merket* for screams: you get an order for screamware, there is a need for screamer drivers, somebody hooks you up to a screamer port, you are screaming now, loud and long. Whew... service is back up, but for how long? It's maddening, living on a razor's edge, you want to , you must... scream. But the market for screams, it's going flat, you are screaming 12, 16 hours a day... it makes you want to...
Is this The end of Humanity
Actualy, the fate of humanity as a natural entity is already doomed. The process of humanity tampering with it's natural destiny has been underway for millenia. It started with prosthetics. There are 3 thousand year-old Egyptian mummies with false teeth. We're still at the stage of using prosthetics and medical intervention to prolong life. This includes medical/surgical procedures and pharmaceuticals. The next phase will be tissue regeneration via cloning, etc. Inspite of the moral/ethical dilemma it will happen because the genie is out of the bottle. Mankind's(women too!) insatiable curiosity will ensure that. Eventually(as computing power grows exponentially) we will be able to transfer consciousness into synthetic bodies. Why bother with the limitations of natural tissues? But by the time that happens the human race would have already been doomed to extinction because the genetic diversity endowed via natural selection would have long since died out. Without genetic diversity life, even synthetic life, cannot sustain itself and is destined for redundancy and utimately, extinction. That will probably happen by the year 2739.
9.0.4 Suite-Samsung Chronos 7 laptop(17")-12GB RAM-Samsung 840 series SSD(250GB)-iPad2-Maschine-TouchAble-SaffirePro24-Saffire6USB-Komplete Audio 6-Axiom25-PCR300-Nocturn-LaunchPad-QuNeo-QuNexus
miTunes
miTunes
I already thought of that, that's why I've been on a steady diet of beer and cheeseburgers (and twinkies for desert) for the past ten years. Hopefully I'll pass my highly-adapted ice-age bod on to my progeny to ensure their survival.MrYellow wrote:Maybe us all evolving into stupid, short, fat, near sighted, sweaty clods is
just what will be needed to survive the next ice age
-Ben
9.0.4 Suite-Samsung Chronos 7 laptop(17")-12GB RAM-Samsung 840 series SSD(250GB)-iPad2-Maschine-TouchAble-SaffirePro24-Saffire6USB-Komplete Audio 6-Axiom25-PCR300-Nocturn-LaunchPad-QuNeo-QuNexus
miTunes
miTunes
-
onyxashanti
- Posts: 158
- Joined: Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:11 pm
- Location: san francisco, ca
- Contact:
You know how a picture can say more then 1000 words?
Here's my argument
Here's my argument
Last edited by hoffman2k on Fri May 27, 2005 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
hoffman2k wrote:You know how a picture can say more then 1000 words?
Here's my argument
[img]http://users.telenet.be/Vayner/Afbeelding%201.png
ahh the prophet groening will never forsake us
-
Pitch Black
- Posts: 6722
- Joined: Sat Dec 21, 2002 2:18 am
- Location: New Zealand
- Contact:
I'm looking forward to the anything-goes, open doping / genetically modified Olympics.onyxashanti wrote:i think we will be able to and allowed [ to a certain extent] to inker with our genetic code. within 200 years i'd bet that there will be all kinds of genetic freaks running around of their own making.
It will make GREAT television!
"...and now the 100 metres for 6-legged kobolds"
'Roid rage wrestling.
The 56 km dash.
The Tractor Throw.
Events where the freakish participants will triumph spectacularly, or spectacularly come apart under the stress. Either way, it will make great telly.
Yeah for sure..... Always thought that would be better than the natural one.
Whichever media baron decides to launch that will make a packet over the
years. I wanna see just how far the body can be pushed. So what if they
only live 2 years after the games.
Back at school a mate of mine won the 400m after a carton a beer, a bottle
of bourbon, a few joints, and a bunch of mushrooms. So there are sure to
be some great combos
-Ben
Whichever media baron decides to launch that will make a packet over the
years. I wanna see just how far the body can be pushed. So what if they
only live 2 years after the games.
Back at school a mate of mine won the 400m after a carton a beer, a bottle
of bourbon, a few joints, and a bunch of mushrooms. So there are sure to
be some great combos
-Ben
-
noisetonepause
- Posts: 4938
- Joined: Sat Dec 28, 2002 3:38 pm
- Location: Sticks and stones