When worrying about economics and politics becomes too much, it helps to read something really freaky. The Grind just got very, very weirded out by "Uploading and The Big Freeze," an essay by Michael Anissimov at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.Anissimov is theorizing on the prospect of human mental activity being replicated by computers -- an idea which provides many insightful flashes of the "get stoned for the first time and wonder if the universe could be in a giant's fingernail" variety. Basically, and that's an understatement, the idea is that humans could upload our minds into super-processors and think millions of times faster than we do now. Humanity would become, as Gilbert Ryle said, and Sting wrote about, a Ghost in the Machine.
Anissimov believes "a complete readout of the data contents and algorithms of the human mind" could make feasible million-, billion-, or trillion-fold speedups in human brain activity, conferring "mind-boggling power." In this new world, Anissimov claims "all the old human achievements will seem inconsequential. Plato, Socrates, Einstein, Mozart, all mediocre." Except, of course, we'd guess, for the work of the great Anissimov.
The premise is certainly thrilling, but the ethical implications are fearsome. "Uploading" could be a moral disaster, he says, "as sadists could keep and torture virtual nations in computers the size of a bowling ball." We aren't sure what that means, exactly, but it definitely sound like something to avoid.
Anissimov's fix for this minor glitch; super-computerized mega-villains? No prob. "Simply eliminate the predisposition to such sadism in the human genetic code…" But he laments, "the actions and beliefs of Nazi Germany have made any such talk about eugenics verboten."
Correct. And talk of Eugenics should be verboten, because the mere idea of state-run selective breeding for humanity is terrifying to any sane human being.
As for eliminating sadism, who will define it? We all know Saddam Hussein was a sadist. But what about women who like to spank in sex play, or guys who use handcuffs? Is that sadism? Who will tell us what's perverted? Is it, perhaps, a well-paid digital ethics consultant at a high-powered think-tank who never got over reading Phillip K. Dick? Just a hunch.
Anyway, the idea that sadism, or any other aberrant human behavior, has a purely genetic basis is very far-fetched and dangerous. Sadism, however you define it, probably results from a web of factors, like family life and substance abuse history, that come into play well after the genetic decisions have all been made.
For the moment, though, we don't need worry about eliminating bad DNA to keep a mega-intelligent digital Hitler from taking over the cyberspace universe in which all humanity resides. As Anissimov wraps up by sagely noting, "Before we can mimic the human brain, we will be able to sketch out the general contours that underlie its ability to function at all."
That would be helpful. Get back to us on that. It the meantime, let us know when someone fixed Vista.
