I think the “Minds with Exotic Properties” section only scratches the surface of exotic properties. It mostly deals with subjective rate of time and reproduction, two phenomena we already have quite good metaphors for. I think the point where human analogies really start to break down is when we start to talk about merging minds.
I will not elaborate here, just link to this short comment of mine, and to my agreeing reply to this comment by Johnicholas in a somewhat different context. There I called Individualism Bias what this Bostrom-Yudkowsky section is a case of in my opinion. Maybe they simply didn’t want to exceed the Shock Level of the Cambridge Handbook editors. But it is interesting to contrast sci-fi with philosophy: sci-fi does not have this blind spot, merging minds are almost a cliché there.
I think the “Minds with Exotic Properties” section only scratches the surface of exotic properties. It mostly deals with subjective rate of time and reproduction, two phenomena we already have quite good metaphors for. I think the point where human analogies really start to break down is when we start to talk about merging minds.
I will not elaborate here, just link to this short comment of mine, and to my agreeing reply to this comment by Johnicholas in a somewhat different context. There I called Individualism Bias what this Bostrom-Yudkowsky section is a case of in my opinion. Maybe they simply didn’t want to exceed the Shock Level of the Cambridge Handbook editors. But it is interesting to contrast sci-fi with philosophy: sci-fi does not have this blind spot, merging minds are almost a cliché there.
I would like to see thoughts along these lines elaborated and discussed somewhere.