[alicebot-aiethics] Have you ever?

[Kim Sullivan]

> Have you ever wanted to know the answer to a very politically time bomb
kind of
> question, where you'd be willing to take a "pill" to forget everything you
> heard, just to know the true answer once?
>
> I'm assuming some part of us would be assuaged, and feel the question
answered,
> even if we couldn't recall the details.  But that the curiosity would be
> itched.

  I wouldn't want to know it if I knew beforehand that I would forget
everything afterwards. Because you would probably even forget the
satisfaction of having known (since eevn this could be a threat to those who
"know"). This applies to other pleasant experiences as well, not only
knowing "the truth".
  And I if kept the memory of having known/experienced, I would probably be
depressed. This happened to me once or twice after parties - what would I
give for not having been drunk...

  I thought about the concept of 'forget-pills' in a different context.
Would I endure (voluntarily) extreme pain if I knew that I would not
remember it? Extreme long perionds of isolation or sensory deprivation (like
a long time in a featureless room)? I don't think so, even though I'm glad I
don't have to make that choice. It probably depends on the kind of thing
they 'offer' you and what your reasons are to do it.

  Now imagine this (getting OT from the original), what if there was a
method to 'duplicate' you, somehow branch your existence at one point. One
of the 2 yous will be told everything, and then removed, while the other you
keeps existing. This would probably have the same effect as a forget pill
for one of you. If this seems familiar, read a sci-fi story about this idea
once.
  The difference is that 'the other' one participates in very attractive,
exotic and deadly sports. One 'copy' kills (against the rules) his opponent
in combat and the original gets punished.
  If we had the ability to 'download' our mind into computers, or
reconstruct it on the form of AI, who should be responsible for the deeds
and thoughts of the copy? Should it be the copy because it has commited a
crime, or the original because we'd have done it too.

Kim