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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2409 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 13, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I fail to see what's so horrible about it. It's a pale shadow of true immortality, but it's better than nothing, and I don't see how ten copies is any worse than one. You could always get them to sync up, and if you can't, then a granny who has a different set of memories and doesn't remember what you said to her last week is not much different from a living one with dementia.

I disagree that it's better than nothing. Such a "copy" wouldn't be the person you love, it would be a simulacrum pretending to be them. Even if it's many times more convincing than what we could do now, it would still be nothing more than a doll. The original, the being with actual value, is lost forever. If I can't have my loved one back, I wouldn't want to piss on their memory by pretending that a cheap imitation is a reasonable substitute for having them around.

If that's how you see things, then you have the option of not creating such a simulacrum, and asking your family not to make one of you. If you're an EU citizen, you probably have stronger legal recourse, such as the people who successfully got ChatGPT to ignore their names.

I would be entirely fine with such a clone of me being around when I wasn't. I don't see it being any worse than people fondly looking back at pictures or videos of the deceased today, they're gone either way, and they're instantiating a replica in their brain to represent them.

Sure. But the fact that I may have legal recourse does not make the idea not horrifying. I was explaining to you why I find it horrifying, not saying that there's nothing to be done.

It's a pale shadow of true immortality

It’s the only immortality that is realistic. Not because “brain upload” is against the laws of physics but because it’s probably grossly inefficient.

I'll take it over being plain old dead, and we'll have to see what future technologies can do in regards to full-fat uploading. Like living on through your genes, it beats utter non-existence.

Wouldn't it be great if your kids could see a healthier, better version of grandma? No reason to wait until she's dead, just turn on AI grandma and avoid an awkward trip to the nursing home.

If she's lucky, maybe someone will remember to turn on grandma's "your family cares about you and comes to visit regularly" VR experience.

I think the future is going to be far more awful and dehumanizing than we can possibly imagine right now.

Wouldn't it be great if your kids could see a healthier, better version of grandma?

Certainly, that's why I'm a transhumanist and a doctor.

No reason to wait until she's dead, just turn on AI grandma and avoid an awkward trip to the nursing home.

I presume you don't see yourself doing this, and neither do I (assuming my grandmas were anything but ash now). So most decent people who visit because of obligation or simply because they care will continue doing so. The people who had little inclination to do so won't, and I don't see this making much of a change on the margin.

So far, improvements in telepresence and telecommunications means it's easier for lonely old folk to speak to their families, leaving aside their issues operating a phone or a video app. The alternative wouldn't be a drastic increase in visits, it would be them being left even more in the cold than is already the case.

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