With quantum mechanics, pixelation of the universe, and some supremely annoying probability, seems reality might be a computer simulation, and God might be an intensely needy supermind playing the latest release of “Semi-Conscious Hairless Primates.”
When we see the clean, cold, precise cognition of a difference machine suddenly go all batshit rogue PMS, an executive-level narcissism kicks into gear. So let’s consider the duality of valuing sentient life, yet being totally willing to murder its ass for the “right” reasons.
Predators and Packbots already function as primitive avatars for pilots and bomb squads, and DARPA’s new Avatar project aims to turn up the resolution. Delineating the consciousness container could get trickier…
What we conceptualize as our discrete Physical Self isn’t nearly as cut and dried as we might think, and the non-corporeal Mental Self seems to have some blurry boundaries as well. We’re Cyborgs, man. Philosophical Cyborgs.
Technological utopianism might be just as foolish as vegan white people with dreadlocks or those with a super-spooky, vengeful, punishing father figure in the sky. But I kinda really seriously doubt it. (BOOK RECOMMENDATION)
It might be a good idea to encourage non-biological intelligences (NBIs) to be, as we are, only vaguely moral. A self-aware & morally pure machine might not be so kind to human nature. Just saying.
Soul? Electrical Pattern? Are we monumentally arrogant to even wonder if we are anything other than an inevitability of chemistry and physics? [author shrugs] Let’s see what Sebastian Seung, author of “Connectome,” has to say.