X-Message-Number: 968 Subject: CRYONICS Hypotheses about human behavior Date: Wed, 08 Jul 92 10:37:54 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson says: >In any attempt to foresee the future, we must make hypotheses about how >human beings will behave. It's pretty empty of you to say that without either stating your hypotheses or trying to state mine. Here are the axioms I'm working from: 1. A system is "human" if it is biologically human, and "machine" if it takes coordinated action but isn't human. (This nomenclature falls miserably in a "Planet of the Apes" scenario. By this definition, an uploaded human is a machine.) 2. Businesses will act in the long run to maximize their profit margins. 3. For any task that humans can do, the cost of making a machine to do that task approaches 0 as time approaches infinity. 4. Humans have a hard limit on their ability. (In the case of cyborgs, the human fraction of the system has a hard limit to its contribution to the whole.) >...if anyone believes that the human race WILL choose to >commit suicide, it should be clear to them that no amount of preparation >by us now will prevent it. Agreed. Nevertheless, my line of reasoning does lead to eventual action. One should strive not to be human when the ecological niche for the humans vanishes. At this point I shall opt out of the discussion. Somebody said something about only speaking to those who have ears to hear, and that seems like a good idea. Tim Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=968