I recently wondered whether it’s possible that transhumans would spend parts of their lives in situations very similar to Dante’s hell, complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some have suggested that a bit of pain might be necessary to make all the pleasure we’re supposed to get realizable, but I suggest that we might actually need quite a lot of it. If the only way to make people happy is to improve their lives, pushing them way down might turn out to be a reasonable solution. And some might choose that route to spice up whatever other sources of happiness there are. The fact that hellfire scares us fleshlings wouldn’t matter to indestructible nanocyborgs.
Or maybe they would intentionally seek other things that I consider horrible. Like the risk of death—isn’t that what people do already when they walk on a tightrope?
Perhaps they’ll put everyone in hell for a few minutes and mess with their memory so they think it was always like that, then disable long-term memory writing and take them out. It would be like you just left Hell for your entire life.
No matter what method they use to get you to the pinnacle of happiness, I’d think disabling long-term memory storage at that point and keeping you there forever would be the best. At least, unless that wouldn’t be happiness.
Disabling long-term memory writing gives me the same bad taste as orgasmium. It’s cheating, and anyway, why live forever if it only feels to you like a minute? Isn’t that, from the Fun perspective, kind of like only living for a minute?
Personally, I’m a big fan of cheating. We’ve already cheated nature. Many of us are hoping to cheat death. Why stop there, when you can cheat sadness too?
why live forever if it only feels to you like a minute?
If what it feels like is all that matters, why not just let someone live for a minute and make it feel like forever? Also, nobody remembers being anybody else, but I would still consider it more ethical for there to be many people than for there to be one.
I’m a huge fan of cheating too. I just don’t want the person being cheated be myself.
We’ve already cheated nature. Many of us are hoping to cheat death. Why stop there, when you can cheat sadness too?
I’m happy to cheat all of those things. However to cheat those at the expense of losing things I value—like my long term memory—is to lose purpose. I’d prefer not to be sad, but if I must wirehead myself so that I don’t feel sadness I’m sure as heck not going to do it by obliterating my ability to store my ongoing experience.
I recently wondered whether it’s possible that transhumans would spend parts of their lives in situations very similar to Dante’s hell, complete with wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some have suggested that a bit of pain might be necessary to make all the pleasure we’re supposed to get realizable, but I suggest that we might actually need quite a lot of it. If the only way to make people happy is to improve their lives, pushing them way down might turn out to be a reasonable solution. And some might choose that route to spice up whatever other sources of happiness there are. The fact that hellfire scares us fleshlings wouldn’t matter to indestructible nanocyborgs.
Or maybe they would intentionally seek other things that I consider horrible. Like the risk of death—isn’t that what people do already when they walk on a tightrope?
Why not just implant memories of hell?
Perhaps they’ll put everyone in hell for a few minutes and mess with their memory so they think it was always like that, then disable long-term memory writing and take them out. It would be like you just left Hell for your entire life.
No matter what method they use to get you to the pinnacle of happiness, I’d think disabling long-term memory storage at that point and keeping you there forever would be the best. At least, unless that wouldn’t be happiness.
Disabling long-term memory writing gives me the same bad taste as orgasmium. It’s cheating, and anyway, why live forever if it only feels to you like a minute? Isn’t that, from the Fun perspective, kind of like only living for a minute?
Personally, I’m a big fan of cheating. We’ve already cheated nature. Many of us are hoping to cheat death. Why stop there, when you can cheat sadness too?
If what it feels like is all that matters, why not just let someone live for a minute and make it feel like forever? Also, nobody remembers being anybody else, but I would still consider it more ethical for there to be many people than for there to be one.
I’m a huge fan of cheating too. I just don’t want the person being cheated be myself.
I’m happy to cheat all of those things. However to cheat those at the expense of losing things I value—like my long term memory—is to lose purpose. I’d prefer not to be sad, but if I must wirehead myself so that I don’t feel sadness I’m sure as heck not going to do it by obliterating my ability to store my ongoing experience.