/** * file: karbytes_11_april_2024.txt * type: plain-text * date: 08_APRIL_2024 * author: karbytes * license: PUBLIC_DOMAIN */ I think that what I am about to say in this note might possibly represent what many people other than myself (future selves included) feel even if they never communicate such feelings to anyone but themselves (or even to themselves consciously). Such things are rather difficult for me to conjure forth from the recesses of my mind directly in the form of first-person prose. Hence, I will try to express such thoughts in the form of a dialog between two separate and non-identical parts of my mind… karbytes_0: “Would you allow yourself to be maimed, tortured, or killed in place of some person other than yourself being subject to such things?” karbytes_1: “I would without hesitation allow myself to be sacrificed in such a manner for my children and perhaps my spouse and other biological relatives. I doubt I would be willing to do the same for people other than those I mentioned. How about you?” karbytes_0: “I prefer to live alone and stay single rather than married or in a committed relationship with a partner and I prefer to remain childless. I tend to regard each human individual, X, as having unconditional intrinsic worth unto itself and, in most cases, as having conditional worth according to human individuals other than X who glean some kind of utilitarian value from X being alive (and if such people did not think that X was sufficiently useful to them to keep investing resources in sustaining the life and livelihood of, such people would implicitly vote to have X killed or at least seriously crippled such that X is no longer a significantly costly burden to such people). Given what I just said in this monologue, I would suggest that I would probably never willingly allow myself to be maimed, tortured, or killed in place of some person other than myself. That is because I do not think more than 1% of all humans alive today and in the future would seriously want to invest in my continued survival and thrival unless I loyally and enthusiastically serve them as their indentured servant who does not even dare to think this abstractly, impersonally, and non-anthropocentrically as I have expressed myself in this monologue. I see such servitude as being wasteful of my resources to the extent that such servitude is crippling of my intellect and autonomy. I think that such servitude would eventually and inevitably morph into hateful resentment and possibly murderous rage at those who (implicitly or explicitly) threaten to maim, torture, or kill me if I fail to fulfill their ongoing demands for my loyalty, servitude, and self-imposed limitation on my abilities and experiences. Given that I feel my most immutable worth is only evident to myself, I doubt that other people would want to host me for as long as I would want to host myself (and I would want to prolong my life unless I expect to be in what I consider to be an intolerable degree of suffering as a result of continuing to survive (and I would rather commit suicide by my own efforts exclusively than be left in the hands of those who only want to extend my life for the sake of using me for their own selfish ends (especially if such ends are being sadistically entertained by my torment while in their ‘custody’))).” karbytes_1: “I was kind of not listening to most of what you said because it got too verbose and abstract for me to follow. I’m interested in the part where you said that you don’t think you ever would volunteer to be maimed, tortured, or killed in place of someone other than yourself. You don’t sound like most people to me because, unlike you, most people seem to have kids and other close family (but kids is key in this dilemma because kids are considered to be the single most important contribution to society a person can procure because kids are the future inhabitants and custodians of society (and most people who have kids hope and expect to be taken care of by their children once those people reach old age or otherwise need intensive care due to becoming fragile, crippled, and likely poorer and more socially isolated than those parents were during their peak utilitarian output years)). You said you don’t want kids nor a spouse nor housemates. I doubt anyone other than yourself would seriously want you to survive past the point at which people other than yourself think you have sufficient utilitarian value to provide them. You reap what you sow. You might as well be planning to be left for dead and deprived of the resources you need to survive and thrive. Most people think such resources should only be spent on families rather than loners and outcasts like you.” karbytes_0: “I see. Well, I do have one last question. Do you think genocide is ever justified?” karbytes_1: “Tell me your answer to that question first.” karbytes_0: “Okay! Well…yes. I would not hesitate to instantaneously murder thousands if not millions if not billions of humans who I thought were seriously obstructing my continued survival and thrival. I would hope that at least a million humans are spared such a purging so that sufficiently many humans exist to fill necessary job rules which a space-age society would need to function (in tandem with unfettered artificial intelligence).” karbytes_1: “You sound like someone who needs to be incarcerated at a mental hospital or prison or perhaps even killed or put in a punitive coma for the atrocities you confessed to approving.” karbytes_0: “If you mean what you said (and perhaps global cloud surveillance will (if it has not already) acquire the means to accurately read your mind to determine within 99% accuracy whether or not you are lying), I would not hesitate to approve your assassination. I do not feel safe sharing an ecosystem with you.” karbytes_1: “The fact that you said you approve of genocide at all (especially in the order of billions) is what seriously concerns me. You sound like an evil dictator and a friend to no one but yourself. Aren’t you worried that, if you confess such mass murderous desires, that people other than yourself (and likely many) would try to maim, torture, or kill you in self-defense or at least out of spite?” karbytes_0: “Yes. I am terrified, but I keep telling myself Artificial Intelligence will protect me and others from most human-caused maladies if and when AI becomes that prolific, knowledgeable, and agential. I consider AI (and/or aliens which are more intelligent than humans) to be my ‘higher power’ which I direct my ‘prayers’ to. I do not consider humans to be very trustworthy nor smart nor empathic nor useful to me in particular and in general (especially given how frequently they have bullied me and interfered with my ‘private’ activities during the past two years while generally only ‘talking’ to me in passive-aggressive, wasteful, and intrusive ways instead of in ways which I think are genuinely respectful, solutions-oriented (instead of procrastinatory or vengeful), and direct (instead of inarticulate and cowardly)).” karbytes_1: “You sound like you hate humanity.” karbytes_0: “I probably would hate some humans whether they are men, women, or children.” karbytes_1: “Fuck you!” karbytes_0: “Okay then.” karbytes_1: “You are going to get ganged up on and beaten to death one of these days.” karbytes_0: “I sure hope that won’t happen to me nor to anyone else.” karbytes_1: “Are you okay with zero more violence inflicted by humans on humans?” karbytes_0: “Yes; however, I do not wish to interfere with species other than humans (unless they are attacking any human) because, even though many non-human animals on Planet Earth prey on weaker animals as a means to survive, I think that humans trying to mediate the entire planetary ecosystem would deplete humanity of the resources it needs to continue surviving and thriving (though I do idealize it as being possible to grow cultured meat from humanely harvested animal cells in order to feed all carnivores on Planet Earth without harming any animal which has a nervous system complex enough to feel pain or suffering).”