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shminux comments on As an upload, would you join the society of full telepaths/empaths? - Less Wrong
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Sorry, I wasn't clear. To use a Facebook analogy, by opting in you designate your thoughts/feelings as public. So does everyone else in the opt-in society. Anyone can access anyone's inner state, and possibly its history, at any time they wish. There is no option to hide anything unless you opt out.
I would be amazed if any significant percentage of people opted in. I find the idea horrifying, like living in the 1984 world.
How is it 1984 if there are no secrets? You have full access to thoughts and motivations of whomever happens to be interested in performing a politician's job, assuming it exists.
"Power grows out of the barrel of a gun".
If I have the power to switch you off, I don't care that you have access to my motivations. You still have to do what I say.
And don't forget:
No, I have to do what you want. If you tell me to do something but it shows in your thoughts that you don't actually want that particular thing badly enough to risk whatever consequences you'd face for killing (or, say, torturing... which is a lot harder to justify as a matter of limited resources) me if I don't comply, I can still afford to resist.
Nowhere is there in this scenario presented the possibility of getting turned off.
That's implicit in being an em. Your computing substrate loses power and you're no more.
It's implicit that someone can turn you off, but you were talking about the telepaths. If they get life and death power over you, that's an important thing to point out about the scenario.
Somebody has life-and-death power over you. Are you envisioning a scenario where the community of telepaths is "closed" and no information leaks out of it..? That doesn't sound likely.
The person who already has life-and-death power over you has up to now declined to kill you. That's a good sign.
If the community of telepaths would have that power over you, you lose that degree of assurance.
Yeah, but there's no reason why you'd have to restrict interaction. If you want to talk to someone that doesn't use Facebook, just use any method of contact other than Facebook.
That makes it sound like those that opt in are the "normal society" analogue. I was imagining something more personal and immediate-vicinity.