Good point. I’m kicking myself for not making a specific note of “harm reduction” in the context of the earring. I had it in mind at some point, but sadly my memory is far from eidetic.
We know:
The ring cares about the consent of the user to some degree.
The process of adaptation and ensuing atrophy is very gradual.
Ergo, it might be possible to use the earring “safely”, either by telling it to only still to auditory nudges in plain English, or by taking regular tolerance breaks. The earring might even be very happy to do that, or simply compliant.
The issue, as I see it, is that by the time your compliance becomes automatic or reflexive, a lot of your brain might be gone. Maybe. Let’s say I had a superintelligent angel (or Opus 6.0) sitting on my shoulder, telling me I shouldn’t be arguing with internet strangers while on my prescription meds (and should be studying instead). Would I listen to that perfectly sagacious advice? Uh… You can tell that I’m not even listening to myself.
>I believe that the problem with your interpretation that you’re not destroyed if there’s a model of you inside the earring, is that it’s not enough for a model to simply exist for it to be felt as life. If a scientist understands and predicts an ant, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the ant lives within the scientist. I might be persuaded that the ant still exists, but it certainly doesn’t live. So I think it’s all about agency after all.
I don’t think that the mere existence of a model equates to life either, in the sense that if I was cryopreserved right now (and could be easily revived), I would think I was in suspended animation instead of “living”, certainly not feeling things or qualia.
But the earring doesn’t just store a model, it must interrogate it, and possibly run it. If you believe that computation is strictly necessary for the emergence of consciousness, as I strongly believe, then that’s fine. If if just keeps a copy of me in cold storage, especially when it moves to another user: fine too. At least there’s hope of revival and reinstantiation in the future.
Now, on the fidelity of simulation:
There is no human scientist on the planet who can simulate an ant with near perfect accuracy using just their own brain. I’m very confident of that. At best, they can make probabilistic arguments (for the sake of argument “the ant has a 90% chance of turning around when it detects pheromones from another species of ant”).
If they genuinely could predict an ant that behaves just like the real thing, with near 100% accuracy (minor error is fine by me), then I’d happily say that a high fidelity copy of the ant exists in their brain, albeit encoded in a manner very different to the original. This doesn’t really bother me, in the same way I care about what a digital image represents more than the file format.
In other words, there’s a spectrum of simulation/emulation that extends from useless to functionally indistinguishable to the real thing. The earring is far to the right, the primary difference being an improvement to the performance and wellbeing of the user with everything else preserved (and I’ve already excused the brain atrophy as having potentially reasonable explanations).
>As a fellow ADHD and depression sufferer who struggles to be happy, I’d precommit to wear this earring to achieve a certain very modest level of financial stability and independence, and then to take if off and start living my own life. It seems useful for ending a losing streak, but not for winning—that just wouldn’t be fun.
You have my condolences. I wish I had an earring or an outright cure to offer you. Oh well, at least I know that the stimulants and certain… experimental antidepressants have been helpful for me. I do not like Ritalin at all, it makes me feel awful, but it’s a necessary evil.
Good point. I’m kicking myself for not making a specific note of “harm reduction” in the context of the earring. I had it in mind at some point, but sadly my memory is far from eidetic.
We know:
The ring cares about the consent of the user to some degree.
The process of adaptation and ensuing atrophy is very gradual.
Ergo, it might be possible to use the earring “safely”, either by telling it to only still to auditory nudges in plain English, or by taking regular tolerance breaks. The earring might even be very happy to do that, or simply compliant.
The issue, as I see it, is that by the time your compliance becomes automatic or reflexive, a lot of your brain might be gone. Maybe. Let’s say I had a superintelligent angel (or Opus 6.0) sitting on my shoulder, telling me I shouldn’t be arguing with internet strangers while on my prescription meds (and should be studying instead). Would I listen to that perfectly sagacious advice? Uh… You can tell that I’m not even listening to myself.
>I believe that the problem with your interpretation that you’re not destroyed if there’s a model of you inside the earring, is that it’s not enough for a model to simply exist for it to be felt as life. If a scientist understands and predicts an ant, I don’t think it’s fair to say that the ant lives within the scientist. I might be persuaded that the ant still exists, but it certainly doesn’t live. So I think it’s all about agency after all.
I don’t think that the mere existence of a model equates to life either, in the sense that if I was cryopreserved right now (and could be easily revived), I would think I was in suspended animation instead of “living”, certainly not feeling things or qualia.
But the earring doesn’t just store a model, it must interrogate it, and possibly run it. If you believe that computation is strictly necessary for the emergence of consciousness, as I strongly believe, then that’s fine. If if just keeps a copy of me in cold storage, especially when it moves to another user: fine too. At least there’s hope of revival and reinstantiation in the future.
Now, on the fidelity of simulation:
There is no human scientist on the planet who can simulate an ant with near perfect accuracy using just their own brain. I’m very confident of that. At best, they can make probabilistic arguments (for the sake of argument “the ant has a 90% chance of turning around when it detects pheromones from another species of ant”).
If they genuinely could predict an ant that behaves just like the real thing, with near 100% accuracy (minor error is fine by me), then I’d happily say that a high fidelity copy of the ant exists in their brain, albeit encoded in a manner very different to the original. This doesn’t really bother me, in the same way I care about what a digital image represents more than the file format.
In other words, there’s a spectrum of simulation/emulation that extends from useless to functionally indistinguishable to the real thing. The earring is far to the right, the primary difference being an improvement to the performance and wellbeing of the user with everything else preserved (and I’ve already excused the brain atrophy as having potentially reasonable explanations).
>As a fellow ADHD and depression sufferer who struggles to be happy, I’d precommit to wear this earring to achieve a certain very modest level of financial stability and independence, and then to take if off and start living my own life. It seems useful for ending a losing streak, but not for winning—that just wouldn’t be fun.
You have my condolences. I wish I had an earring or an outright cure to offer you. Oh well, at least I know that the stimulants and certain… experimental antidepressants have been helpful for me. I do not like Ritalin at all, it makes me feel awful, but it’s a necessary evil.