One of the major messages I got from it was thus: even if you never physically die, eventually over eternity one of these two things will happen -
1) your utility function will drift enough, and your memories fade and change enough, they you will be unrecognizable as the person you were. You as you are now will effectively be dead.
2) you will successfully resist change, and will be stuck thinking and doing the same things endlessly in a loop. You might as well be dead.
Even if we defeat death, living long enough is essential death anyway. You are doomed, there is no escape.
Isn’t that just due to the author’s inability to imagine/describe a mind capable of becoming increasingly and unboundedly complex without losing its identity? Why take it as an inevitable conclusion?
One of the major messages I got from it was thus: even if you never physically die, eventually over eternity one of these two things will happen - 1) your utility function will drift enough, and your memories fade and change enough, they you will be unrecognizable as the person you were. You as you are now will effectively be dead. 2) you will successfully resist change, and will be stuck thinking and doing the same things endlessly in a loop. You might as well be dead.
Even if we defeat death, living long enough is essential death anyway. You are doomed, there is no escape.
Isn’t that just due to the author’s inability to imagine/describe a mind capable of becoming increasingly and unboundedly complex without losing its identity? Why take it as an inevitable conclusion?
Well sure, but that wouldn’t make for a good horror novel. :)