X-Message-Number: 12689
Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 11:03:59 -0700
From: Kennita Watson <>
Subject: Re: Discussion of feelings
References: <>

CryoNet wrote:

> Message #12681
> Date: Sun Oct 31 00:55:18 1999  PST
> Subject: ACS RealVideo Library
> From: Edgar W Swank <>

Way to go, Edgar!!!

> Message #12682
> From: Thomas Donaldson <>
> Subject: why discuss feelings and goals?
> Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 22:58:41 +1100 (EST)

> I was discussing the kind of future we may find ourselves in if and when
> we awaken from suspension. Are we going to find out that we're so
> totally obsolete that our life will become worthless?

> You may decide that this discussion isn't necessary, but others may not.
> The question it raises is that of just what the worlds in our future
> will be like ... and for some, such worlds may be so disagreeable that
> they choose not to continue living.

I think of such attitudes as pessimism born of depression -- all
fortune-telling to me.  I want to live, and if I come back and find
that the world is so disagreeable that I want to die then, I can die
then, so it makes no difference to what I do now.

> Message #12683
> From: "Scott Badger" <>
> References: <>
> Subject: still more on feelings and goals
> Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 10:10:44 -0600
> 
> In response to Kennita's question regarding relevance, I guess I would
> suggest that it is unlikely that we will be able to live indefinitely in our
> current biological form.  Eventually, we're going to need a more durable
> system and it's important to know whether we're going to want or need to
> take our emotional systems along with us since they seem to be more tied to
> our bodies than our cognitive systems are.

Ah -- something I understand why I care about.

Note to cryonics providers -- I'll thank you to preserve every bit
of information you can, and to restore all you can (modulo illness),
and to leave to me whether I want to optimize, upload, shapechange,
be a more youthful me, or whatever.  I'm sure that then I'll have
much more information on which to base such a determination.

Mind you, if I'm suspended, I won't have much choice.  It could be
bothersome if AI is doing the reanimation and, not using the 
emotional system I have (whether or not it has its own), decides
I don't need mine and omits it.  But if that's the only choice
I have besides being dead, I'll take it.

>  Also, if AI isn't developed by
> the time we deanimate, I think we can expect them to be around when we are
> reanimated.  Aren't some of the opinion that successful reanimation is a
> problem that AI is likely to solve before humans do?

Why do I care?  If I'm suspended, I don't care how the problem is
solved, as long as it's solved.  If I wake up and am surprised at
the state of the world, I'll be boggled for a while, then learn to
deal.
> 
> Message #12684
> Date: Mon, 01 Nov 1999 00:02:39 -0700
> From: Mike Perry <>
> Subject: Re: Feeling discussion
> 
> Kennita Watson (#12677) raises the issue of whether the discussion of
> feelings is relevant to cryonics...

> Kennita also asks, "Is there
> anything I would do differently if one side or the other wins this
> argument?" To me there is not a simple dichotomy between two sides here. I'm
> looking for insights I haven't thought of before, not just to win a
> "victory" over somebody who disagrees with me. If nothing else, it could
> affect how I present the case for cryonics to outsiders.

Ah -- there's a certain insight.  I'm watching people in the 
exploratory phase, and I'm impatient to see the finished product.
I hope that when this is all hashed out, I will see an article
somewhere on the topic of how to reassure prospective cryonics 
patients that uploading can preserve emotions, or something
like that.

In any case, I'm mostly following to make sure I don't miss the
conclusion.  Maybe if I either wait for an announcement of an
article, or notice when the "feelings" discussion has died out 
and look backwards, hoping that the end of it contains the 
conclusions, if any, then I can leave the rest of you to explore 
in peace.

Cheers,
Kennita
-- 
Kennita Watson           |   Late to bed, early to rise,
       |      work like hell, and advertise."  
http://i.am/Kennita      |               -- Werner von Braun

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