I was reading some of my AI stuff again today. Incidentally if you want to read some of this stuff go to www.kurzweilai.net and marvel at all the circuity goodness.

So I was reading and thinking about the mind-uploading that the transhumanist contingent is eagerly awaiting with saliva dripping from their implanted spring-loaded chip-infested poisoned fangs and this ethical dilemma occured to me:

What if, in this as yet theoretical shining utopian future, mind uploading becomes possible but is so prohibitively expensive that most people can't afford it. Maybe, say, the equivalent of half a million dollars. But they've worked the bugs out, it works and works well, the technology is robust and they have failsafes and all that and it's safe and most importantly they can keep your construct going indefinitely. Effective electronic immortality, with all your intelligence and memories digitally intact. They put the 'trodes on your head, the machine goes whir-click-whir PING and your mind is copied whole and complete onto a computer.

But it's so expensive that a normal person can't afford it unless their health insurance company pays for it.

So who decides who gets uploaded? And by what criteria?

Should it only be the very wealthy who can afford to pay for it out of pocket? Should they be allowed to do so?

Should corporations be allowed to upload their employees? Do they then own their employees' constructs and if so is the employee then a slave even though the employee is now just a data construct and thus technically a piece of software just like any other?

Can a family pay to upload a dying family member against the wishes of that family member? And what if afterward the construct wants to be erased? Who's in control, and would the construct be allowed a means to erase itself?

Should the government be allowed to upload whoever it wants? And who in the government decides who gets uploaded?

Should prominent scientists -- Professor Hawking comes to mind -- be uploaded so they can continue their work after their physical death as some form of global treasure to benefit all of humankind? What if they don't want to?

What if the prices fall and human-uploaded constructs begin to compete with the Artificial Intelligences for storage and memory space? Who gets to live? Who decides? The human constructs? Or the AIs? And on what criteria?


You guys see why I love this stuff so much now?