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A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

technologyreview.com

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Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#81

Post by vtange »

omegaworks wrote: post #63
savanaly wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel too bad about it. If economic growth stays even slightly positive it won't take too many generations for our descendants to be unimaginably more wealthy than we are. They can put up with our brain banks and dry their tears with their one dollar notes that are worth $1,000 in 2018 dollars.

>their one dollar notes that are worth $1,000 in 2018 dollars. The fed would never allow this to happen. That would be deflation. What we should pray for is $0.25 loaves of bread, $10 rent, and a $1000 minimum wage. We want a future where human time is valued and basic resources are plentiful enough to be cheap for everyone.

That is still deflation. Deflation is any decrease in the general price level of goods and services. It does not matter if it is due to increased production by advanced AI robots, etc. After all, if you knew you can get something cheaper tomorrow, why spend at all? Like you said, the Fed will run against this.

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#82

Post by minimuffins »

kaizendad wrote: post #28

Seems like a big bet on the concept that the physical structure of the brain preserves enough information to resurrect a consciousness. If electrical transmissions are at all required, then this would render a brain nothing more than an amusing curio. Although, given that their target market is already those planning to be euthanized, I suppose the tradeoff of one's brain being an amusing curio vs. one's brain being…

I dunno, if this guy won't even look both ways maybe he doesn't actually deserve a slot in the cryo cooler.

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#83

Post by doorbumper »

It seems interesting from the perspective of the customer, but the really interesting thing is that if this succeeds, they will have access to brain imaging data that no one else has. You can't normally get such detailed scans of a human brain, because it requires the human to die. It's a business model that allows them to accelerate the pace of research without the human rights violations that come from human experimentation. The real value in this company is in what research arises from the data they gather, while being funded by people paying to donate their brains to research. It's a diabolical everybody wins situation.

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#86

Post by petercooper »

cwkoss wrote: post #75
PeanutNore wrote: post #42

“Burdening future generations with our brain banks is just comically arrogant. Aren’t we leaving them with enough problems?” Hendricks told me this week after reviewing Nectome’s website. “I hope future people are appalled that in the 21st century, the richest and most comfortable people in history spent their money and resources trying to live forever on the backs of their descendants. I mean, it’s a joke, right? Th…

Anyone who is cryopreserved, but is viewed as a villian in the zeitgeist of the future, could end up being booted up into a personal hell for the amusement/vindictiveness of future people. If a 'Hitler' VM was publicly available online, how many people would torture it? What are the ethics around torturing virtual consciousnesses of evil people?

A heads up for anyone interested in such matters, but an episode in the latest season of Black Mirror is specifically about this :-) (Indeed, most of the season is about the ethics of simulated consciousness in various ways.)

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#87

Post by nooron »

noetic_techy wrote: post #84

Preserve my brain. Liquidate all assets and put them into an index fund. Boot me back up when I'm rich in a new sleeve.

Think about the impact this would have on interest rates. Closest thing I can imagine would be this: http://www.standupeconomist.com/pdf/misc/interstellar.pdf

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#88

Post by sulam »

Avshalom wrote: post #21
carbocation wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then they threaten to resurrect you 1000x and torture each of your resurrected selves for 1000 years unless you tell them the private key. Roko's basilisk meets bitcoin.

Yeah but by the same logic as The Simulation Hypothesis if I am not being tortured now Rokos basilisk will never come to pass.

The simulation hypothesis just means you have a very low chance, not that it's zero.

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#89

Post by smhenderson »

manmal wrote: post #36
prepend wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly, morality and the greater good of humanity requires that we proactively euthanize any genius who hits 60. Even against their will. All assets should go to the euthanasia team to cover costs.

Do you refer to a certain Star Trek episode? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_a_Life_(Star_Trek:_The_... (Ritual suicide at age 60 embedded in culture)

RIP David Ogden Stiers [1]. That episode of Trek might be the only thing I ever saw him other than MASH but I found him quite good in both.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogden_Stiers

Re: A startup is pitching a mind-uploading service that is “100 percent fatal”

#90

Post by mulmen »

doorbumper wrote: post #83

It seems interesting from the perspective of the customer, but the really interesting thing is that if this succeeds, they will have access to brain imaging data that no one else has. You can't normally get such detailed scans of a human brain, because it requires the human to die. It's a business model that allows them to accelerate the pace of research without the human rights violations that come from human experi…

It's unclear to me how the euthanized brain donors "win" in the absence of proof that memories can be recovered.
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