I would not be enthusiastic about Star Trek transporters, no. And yes, I would like to know how shminux feels about thinking like a dinosaur; that does seem to capture my intuitions rather well.
First, I would like to acknowledge that ready access to a cloning tech would require a significant reevaluation of metaethics.
Second, dealing with lost ACKs is the least of the worries, and the show’s premise resulted from a poorly constructed communication protocol. So this particular issue can be solved technologically. For example: mandatory induced unconsciousness similar to general anesthesia, for the duration of transport and success confirmation process, to prevent the subject from anxiously waiting for positive confirmation if the initial ACK is lost.
Just to have a taste of the real ethical issues of cloning, note that many forms of utilitarianism mandate immediately creating as many clones as possible as long as their lives are at least “barely worth celebrating”, in Eliezer’s words. Another issue is cloning the most useful individuals at the expense of the quality of life of the least useful. Refer to your favorite transhumanist sci-fi for more details and examples.
I recall a humorous one of the Lem’s Ijon Tichy stories (can’t find a link ATM), where on one of the planets under constant heavy meteorite bombardment the mandatory logging and cloning tech was used as a routine way to revive the victims, replacing fatalities with minor inconveniences.
Finally, yours and Mark_Friedenbach’s aversion to radical versions of suspended animation is so foreign to me, I have trouble steelmanning your position.
I recall a humorous one of the Lem’s Ijion Tichy stories (can’t find a link ATM), where on one of the planets under constant heavy meteorite bombardment the mandatory logging and cloning tech was used as a routine way to revive the victims, replacing fatalities with minor inconveniences.
I would not be enthusiastic about Star Trek transporters, no. And yes, I would like to know how shminux feels about thinking like a dinosaur; that does seem to capture my intuitions rather well.
First, I would like to acknowledge that ready access to a cloning tech would require a significant reevaluation of metaethics.
Second, dealing with lost ACKs is the least of the worries, and the show’s premise resulted from a poorly constructed communication protocol. So this particular issue can be solved technologically. For example: mandatory induced unconsciousness similar to general anesthesia, for the duration of transport and success confirmation process, to prevent the subject from anxiously waiting for positive confirmation if the initial ACK is lost.
Just to have a taste of the real ethical issues of cloning, note that many forms of utilitarianism mandate immediately creating as many clones as possible as long as their lives are at least “barely worth celebrating”, in Eliezer’s words. Another issue is cloning the most useful individuals at the expense of the quality of life of the least useful. Refer to your favorite transhumanist sci-fi for more details and examples.
I recall a humorous one of the Lem’s Ijon Tichy stories (can’t find a link ATM), where on one of the planets under constant heavy meteorite bombardment the mandatory logging and cloning tech was used as a routine way to revive the victims, replacing fatalities with minor inconveniences.
Finally, yours and Mark_Friedenbach’s aversion to radical versions of suspended animation is so foreign to me, I have trouble steelmanning your position.
I recall a humorous one of the Lem’s Ijion Tichy stories (can’t find a link ATM), where on one of the planets under constant heavy meteorite bombardment the mandatory logging and cloning tech was used as a routine way to revive the victims, replacing fatalities with minor inconveniences.
It’s the Twenty-Third Voyage in Star Diaries.