Lumifer comments on As an upload, would you join the society of full telepaths/empaths? - Less Wrong

5 Post author: shminux 15 October 2013 08:59PM

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Comment author: Lumifer 16 October 2013 05:02:51PM 5 points [-]

"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:

He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.

Comment author: Strange7 28 January 2014 02:37:33AM 0 points [-]

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.

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.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 17 October 2013 06:21:06PM 0 points [-]

Nowhere is there in this scenario presented the possibility of getting turned off.

Comment author: Lumifer 17 October 2013 06:39:52PM 2 points [-]

That's implicit in being an em. Your computing substrate loses power and you're no more.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 18 October 2013 04:35:43PM -1 points [-]

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.

Comment author: Lumifer 18 October 2013 04:56:36PM 1 point [-]

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.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 18 October 2013 05:32:45PM -1 points [-]

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.

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