4 ms·

> The copy was brought into existence without its consent. This isn't the same as normal reproduction because babies are not born with human sapience, and as a

by brazzy 8mo ago

> The copy was brought into existence without its consent. This isn't the same as normal reproduction because babies are not born with human sapience, and as a society we collectively agree that children do not have full human rights. That is a reasonable argument for why it's not the same. But it is no argument at all for why being brought into existence without one's consent is a violation of bodily autonomy, let alone a particularly bad one - especially given that the copy would, at the moment its existence begin, identical to the original, who just gave consent. If anything, it is very, very obviously a much smaller violation of consent then conceiving a child.

mrob 8mo ago
The original only consents for itself. It doesn't matter if the copy is coerced into sharing the experience of giving that consent, it didn't actually consent. Unlike a baby, all its memories are known to a third party with the maximum fidelity possible. Unlike a baby, everything it believes it accomplished was really done by another person. When the copy understands what happened it will realize it's a victim of horrifying psychological torture. Copying a consciousness is obviously evil and aw124 is correct.
- brazzy 8mo ago
  You are making a bunch of unfounded assetions, not arguments.
- lxgr 8mo ago
  I feel like the only argument you're successfully making is that you would find it inevitably evil/immoral to be a cloned consciousness. I don't see how that automatically follows for the rest of humanity. Sure, there are astronomical ethical risks and we might be better off not doing it, but I think your arguments are losing that nuance, and I think it's important to discuss the matter accurately.
  - mrob 8mo ago
    This entire HN discussion is proof that some people would not personally have a problem with being cloned, but that does not entitle them to create clones. The clone is not the same person. It will inevitably deviate from the original simply because it's impossible to expose it to exactly the same environment and experiences. The clone has the right to change its mind about the ethics of cloning.
    - ben_w 8mo ago
      > The clone is not the same person. Then it wasn't a good attempt at making a mind clone. I suspect this will actually be the case, which is why I oppose it, but you do actually have to start from the position that the clone is immediately divergent to get to your conclusions; to the extent that the people you're arguing with are correct (about this future tech hypothetical we're not really ready to guess about) that the clone is actually at the moment of their creation identical in all important ways to the original, then if the original was consenting the clone must also be consenting: Because if the clone didn't start off consenting to being cloned when the original did, it's necessarily the case that the brain cloning process was not accurate. > It will inevitably deviate from the original simply because it's impossible to expose it to exactly the same environment and experiences. And?
      - lxgr 8mo ago
        > you do actually have to start from the position that the clone is immediately divergent to get to your conclusions Eventual divergence seems to be enough, and I don't think this requires any particularly strong assumptions.
        ben_w 8mo ago
        If divergence were an argument against the clone having been created, by symmetry it is also an argument against the living human having been allowed to exist beyond the creation of the clone. The living mind may be mistreated, grow sick, die a painful death. The uploaded mind may be mistreated, experience something equivalent. Those sufferances are valid issues, but they are not arguments for the act of cloning itself to be considered a moral issue. Uncontrolled diffusion of such uploads may be; I could certainly believe a future in which, say, every American politician gets a thousand copies of their mind stuck in a digital hell created by individual members the other party on computers in their basements that the party leaders never know about. But then, I have read Surface Detail by Iain M Banks.

by brazzy 8mo ago

mrob 8mo ago

The original only consents for itself. It doesn't matter if the copy is coerced into sharing the experience of giving that consent, it didn't actually consent. Unlike a baby, all its memories are known to a third party with the maximum fidelity possible. Unlike a baby, everything it believes it accomplished was really done by another person. When the copy understands what happened it will realize it's a victim of horrifying psychological torture. Copying a consciousness is obviously evil and aw124 is correct.

brazzy 8mo ago
You are making a bunch of unfounded assetions, not arguments.
lxgr 8mo ago
I feel like the only argument you're successfully making is that you would find it inevitably evil/immoral to be a cloned consciousness. I don't see how that automatically follows for the rest of humanity. Sure, there are astronomical ethical risks and we might be better off not doing it, but I think your arguments are losing that nuance, and I think it's important to discuss the matter accurately.
- mrob 8mo ago
  This entire HN discussion is proof that some people would not personally have a problem with being cloned, but that does not entitle them to create clones. The clone is not the same person. It will inevitably deviate from the original simply because it's impossible to expose it to exactly the same environment and experiences. The clone has the right to change its mind about the ethics of cloning.
  - ben_w 8mo ago
    > The clone is not the same person. Then it wasn't a good attempt at making a mind clone. I suspect this will actually be the case, which is why I oppose it, but you do actually have to start from the position that the clone is immediately divergent to get to your conclusions; to the extent that the people you're arguing with are correct (about this future tech hypothetical we're not really ready to guess about) that the clone is actually at the moment of their creation identical in all important ways to the original, then if the original was consenting the clone must also be consenting: Because if the clone didn't start off consenting to being cloned when the original did, it's necessarily the case that the brain cloning process was not accurate. > It will inevitably deviate from the original simply because it's impossible to expose it to exactly the same environment and experiences. And?
    - lxgr 8mo ago
      > you do actually have to start from the position that the clone is immediately divergent to get to your conclusions Eventual divergence seems to be enough, and I don't think this requires any particularly strong assumptions.
      - ben_w 8mo ago
        If divergence were an argument against the clone having been created, by symmetry it is also an argument against the living human having been allowed to exist beyond the creation of the clone. The living mind may be mistreated, grow sick, die a painful death. The uploaded mind may be mistreated, experience something equivalent. Those sufferances are valid issues, but they are not arguments for the act of cloning itself to be considered a moral issue. Uncontrolled diffusion of such uploads may be; I could certainly believe a future in which, say, every American politician gets a thousand copies of their mind stuck in a digital hell created by individual members the other party on computers in their basements that the party leaders never know about. But then, I have read Surface Detail by Iain M Banks.