By “highly documented” I had in mind not just the ordinary documentation that prominent public figures get, but someone who has deliberately taken steps to exhaustively record as much as they can, public and private.
I remain sceptical. External observation (something on the life cam lines) still cannot distinguish an hour of thinking about the stars’ main sequence from an hour of thinking about cosplay lolis. And diaries have the big problem of self-reflection… not being entirely accurate.
I take it our hypothetical system would not simply assume that diaries are accurate records; they would (so to speak) ask the question “how likely is it that any given person would write this diary entry?” which is not at all the same as the question “how well does this diary entry, taken at face value, match the actual life of this person?”.
This raises the question: Is it possible to deduce the correct person without creating conscious simulations of possibly very many people, which raises ethical questions.
I think you’re taking the suggestion a bit more seriously than I intended it. The commercial opportunity only needs the simulation to be good enough to tug at the heartstrings of those who knew the subject. Pictures and mementos are treasured; this would be a step beyond those, a living memorial that you could have a conversation with. It wouldn’t work for LessWrongers though. They’d spend all their time trying to break it.
It wouldn’t work for LessWrongers though. They’d spend all their time trying to break it.
LOL, certainly a fair point :-)
The problem for your commercial opportunity is the uncanny valley, though. Also, people tend to me more interested in virtual girlfriends than in virtual grandpas :-/
By “highly documented” I had in mind not just the ordinary documentation that prominent public figures get, but someone who has deliberately taken steps to exhaustively record as much as they can, public and private.
I remain sceptical. External observation (something on the life cam lines) still cannot distinguish an hour of thinking about the stars’ main sequence from an hour of thinking about cosplay lolis. And diaries have the big problem of self-reflection… not being entirely accurate.
I take it our hypothetical system would not simply assume that diaries are accurate records; they would (so to speak) ask the question “how likely is it that any given person would write this diary entry?” which is not at all the same as the question “how well does this diary entry, taken at face value, match the actual life of this person?”.
This raises the question: Is it possible to deduce the correct person without creating conscious simulations of possibly very many people, which raises ethical questions.
I think you’re taking the suggestion a bit more seriously than I intended it. The commercial opportunity only needs the simulation to be good enough to tug at the heartstrings of those who knew the subject. Pictures and mementos are treasured; this would be a step beyond those, a living memorial that you could have a conversation with. It wouldn’t work for LessWrongers though. They’d spend all their time trying to break it.
LOL, certainly a fair point :-)
The problem for your commercial opportunity is the uncanny valley, though. Also, people tend to me more interested in virtual girlfriends than in virtual grandpas :-/