There is a belief entitled Technological Determinism, which is that if it is technologically feasible, it will happen. This is not always good. In fact, it is often bad. Let us assume, although it will be difficult, that it will become technically possible to make cheap avatars and equip them with digital copies of our brain. Mr. Itskov, believes this will lead to lifetimes of many hundreds, if not thousands of years, and we will be released from the petty worries of day to day living. Incidentally, he is perhaps a bit extreme, but not alone among people of wealth, especially those associated with science and technology, who like the media are titillated by a potentially much longer life span. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and possessor of a net worth of many billions of dollars, is funding a foundation to do research on extending life, and many believe that he may be somewhat interested in his own.
But supposing Mr. Itskov’s goal becomes feasible in 2045 (his schedule). I can easily think up a few non-technical questions.
1. Who is going to maintain Mr. Itzkov’s avatar?. Tax money? Perhaps other avatars could, but if equipped with human minds, would they? He could probably endow his avatar’s upkeep, but if this is to be the routine, will only wealthy people live thousands of years? In my opinion there are enough of them around already, Where would avatars live? I don’t want any in my neighborhood.
2. How will Mr. Itskov decide when to fire up his avatar? Will he do it when his avatar becomes available? If he is on schedule he will be 64. Or will he wait until he is feeling the onslaught of dementia to do so? Will he use his wealth to download his brain into hundreds of avatars? Will he turn off his flesh and blood body when his brain is downloaded? If not, what happens when it gets into an argument with his avatar? Would he turn off his body if he was his present age?
3. Most people I know love their parents, but when their parents die, after a time of mourning, there is a certain feeling of increased independence. What would it be like to have avatar parents around for thousands of years? Or an ex spouse?
4. What rights will avatars have? Will flesh and blood humans outrank them? When avatars are several hundred years old and still have brains fueled with ancient ideas will it be okay to remove their battery packs? Or will that be murder? Will it be acceptable for avatars to download the brains of flesh and blood humans into an avatar and discard the human?
5. What if cheap avatar bodies don’t work as well as flesh and blood ones? Will the brain be frustrated with the body for thousand of years? Sounds even worse than bad knees.
Apparently many people think Mr. Itskov is insane. I don’t think so. I think that he is probably an idealistic young guy with a lot of money who has not found a life yet. Or maybe he likes to make a splash—after all, he was a media mogul. In the interim, he will be popular with the “improve the human” set.
I personally love life, have an infinite number of projects, and do not want to die, and when the time comes I will fight it as well as I can in the traditional way. But I do believe that it is our duty to get out of the way when we lose the fight, without inflicting ourselves on society for thousands of years. In particular, I would be even more of a pain over those thousands of years if I were not diverted by the petty worries of day to day living.
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