tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post4764362141730280958..comments2024-03-25T11:49:21.281-07:00Comments on The Splintered Mind: SpaceTimeMind Podcasts: Alien and Machine Minds, Death and Logic Eric Schwitzgebelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-6641767165849351542014-07-10T11:07:15.386-07:002014-07-10T11:07:15.386-07:00Yes, that's an interesting thought, Pete. And...Yes, that's an interesting thought, Pete. And if it's true, it probably does create some pressure on the first issue as well, in the sense that even if the daring is highly improbable in the universe, once actualized such entities will probably proliferate, creating a certain kind of moral and pragmatic pressure to include them.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-83995481659147873572014-07-07T08:19:53.032-07:002014-07-07T08:19:53.032-07:00Re: "will need to be preserved". There a...Re: "will need to be preserved". There are at least two issues smooshed together here. One is what needs to be preserved in order to count as conscious or intelligent. The second is what needs to be preserved in order to maximize evolutionary fitness. My bet, and I got into this a bit toward the end of episode 8, is that creatures who take a metaphysically daring stance toward the first question (e.g., by choosing to view their upload counterparts as their continuants) will be more evolutionary successful than their metaphysically timid competitors, regardless of what the *right* answer is (or whether there even is one) to the first question.Pete Mandikhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10952230864825600992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-27258600034781411592014-07-07T05:11:45.018-07:002014-07-07T05:11:45.018-07:00GNZ: Nice angle on the issue. I'm guessing Ric...GNZ: Nice angle on the issue. I'm guessing Richard thinks that won't work for brain functioning -- that there will be something very special that will need to be preserved and cannot be implemented non-biologically or in multiple radically different ways.Eric Schwitzgebelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11541402189204286449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26951738.post-13398039993159699382014-07-03T23:15:22.079-07:002014-07-03T23:15:22.079-07:00Seems to me that we will in a fairly short period ...Seems to me that we will in a fairly short period of time (in the big scheme of things) modify our bodies to be largely based on something else (like silicone or something else that works well) and that over the life of the universe most intelligent aliens would be likely to exist in a form that was in this more optimal design rather than the one they happen to evolve.<br /><br />GNZAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com