Questions from Chess
May. 3rd, 2012 02:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackYou receive a letter stating that you have been chosen randomly to have the privilege of being one of the brain scans included in an interstellar probe launch. The letter explains that it is a great honour and the procedure is noninvasive, and the probe will be targetted at an area that the eccentric rich sponsor believes contains an alien civilisation who will be able to revive your copy and interact with you at the other end, possibly long after the human species is extinct. You will be remunerated for your trouble, but not to a massive extent - just enough to cover expenses and compensate for the hassle. Do you accept the offer, and if so why / why not?
Firstly, to get out of way various nitpicking, I am assuming the scenario the eccentric sponsor proposes seems plausible, even though in real life, it seems implausible that we could have that much confidence that we can make a brain scan capable (even in theory) of being recreated without having tried it first, and implausible that this guy would have an idea where an advanced alien civilisation lived, without everyone else knowing as well.
And I'm not sure if we could even reliably hit any star but the closest (let alone another galaxy) with an unmanned probe.
But assuming that it wasn't so ridiculous I didn't want anything to do with it, I'd say "of course, why not"? People who accept a destructive brain scan would be the really brave (and probably stupid) ones!
I'd think it almost certainly wouldn't come to anything, but if it was a plausible long shot, it would be cool to be chosen. And even though it's really unlikely those scans could ever be revived, if it seemed possible, it would be good to have some sort of a hedge for the continuation of humanity if something unfortunate happened on earth.
But the core of the question seems to be "Would you accept a 'clone' of you going out into the unknown"? There seem to be two parts to this.
Firstly, the chance that (if aliens DO manage to revive you!) it's really werid/bad. But this is so theoretical that (greg egan's story from the point of view of a doomed subroutine of a virtually-revived mind notwithstanding) I can't really worry about it.
And secondly, the question of duplication/leaving everything behind. Here I seem to have a rather weird view: I think one of the big pressures against death (along with some more intrinsic ones) is a social pressure, the feel of not wanting to leave a world behind with everyone going "but what happened"? But as long as one of me is left here, another of me might as well gamble on the stars, if I'm never revived, what's the harm?
Firstly, to get out of way various nitpicking, I am assuming the scenario the eccentric sponsor proposes seems plausible, even though in real life, it seems implausible that we could have that much confidence that we can make a brain scan capable (even in theory) of being recreated without having tried it first, and implausible that this guy would have an idea where an advanced alien civilisation lived, without everyone else knowing as well.
And I'm not sure if we could even reliably hit any star but the closest (let alone another galaxy) with an unmanned probe.
But assuming that it wasn't so ridiculous I didn't want anything to do with it, I'd say "of course, why not"? People who accept a destructive brain scan would be the really brave (and probably stupid) ones!
I'd think it almost certainly wouldn't come to anything, but if it was a plausible long shot, it would be cool to be chosen. And even though it's really unlikely those scans could ever be revived, if it seemed possible, it would be good to have some sort of a hedge for the continuation of humanity if something unfortunate happened on earth.
But the core of the question seems to be "Would you accept a 'clone' of you going out into the unknown"? There seem to be two parts to this.
Firstly, the chance that (if aliens DO manage to revive you!) it's really werid/bad. But this is so theoretical that (greg egan's story from the point of view of a doomed subroutine of a virtually-revived mind notwithstanding) I can't really worry about it.
And secondly, the question of duplication/leaving everything behind. Here I seem to have a rather weird view: I think one of the big pressures against death (along with some more intrinsic ones) is a social pressure, the feel of not wanting to leave a world behind with everyone going "but what happened"? But as long as one of me is left here, another of me might as well gamble on the stars, if I'm never revived, what's the harm?