If it sounds arbitrary, it’s because I’m just speculating (which it seems most predictions about the FAR future are anyway). Not to say that all speculations are of equal merit.
My point isn’t necessarily about a war that could happen between uploads. I don’t assume that it will happen; just that it’s a possibility.
In evolution, it’s not the species that reproduces the most that survives. It’s the species with the most surviving members. Computational capacity concentrated in the hands of the few would enable greater coordination if there ever came to a fight over computation substrate. Although I don’t see what the motivation for this sort of war would be.
With uploads being nearly immortal, incredibly intelligent compared to modern humans, and able to digitally alter their hedonic set points, I don’t see how anything even moderately similar to modern society could persist after the invention of WBE. Why would an upload want to own a home or fight over property? They can just alter their hedonic-set point. Why would a WBE want to go to war? They aren’t going to be gaining any more happiness. They would just be needlessly endangering their lives. Why would they want to “work” hard? They don’t really need to pay for dentists, food, college, homes. What sort of work is being done in this economy? What are the motivations of the uploads to do this work? What are the motivations of the “employers” (if there still are employers)? The fact that you could alter you set-point and learn at an exponential rate, and live for what seems like an eternity makes me think that uploads will be nothing like humans today. But this is just my speculation, and I’m open to other ones.
If it sounds arbitrary, it’s because I’m just speculating (which it seems most predictions about the FAR future are anyway). Not to say that all speculations are of equal merit.
My point isn’t necessarily about a war that could happen between uploads. I don’t assume that it will happen; just that it’s a possibility.
In evolution, it’s not the species that reproduces the most that survives. It’s the species with the most surviving members. Computational capacity concentrated in the hands of the few would enable greater coordination if there ever came to a fight over computation substrate. Although I don’t see what the motivation for this sort of war would be.
With uploads being nearly immortal, incredibly intelligent compared to modern humans, and able to digitally alter their hedonic set points, I don’t see how anything even moderately similar to modern society could persist after the invention of WBE. Why would an upload want to own a home or fight over property? They can just alter their hedonic-set point. Why would a WBE want to go to war? They aren’t going to be gaining any more happiness. They would just be needlessly endangering their lives. Why would they want to “work” hard? They don’t really need to pay for dentists, food, college, homes. What sort of work is being done in this economy? What are the motivations of the uploads to do this work? What are the motivations of the “employers” (if there still are employers)? The fact that you could alter you set-point and learn at an exponential rate, and live for what seems like an eternity makes me think that uploads will be nothing like humans today. But this is just my speculation, and I’m open to other ones.