X-Message-Number: 15961
Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 12:39:44 -0500
From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <>
Subject: Re: Refusing sentience, in order to prevent suffering

"robin helweg-larsen" wrote:
>
> I take exception with your claim to the right to prevent sentient existence
> merely because it includes suffering.

A very simple misunderstanding.  Nobody has the right to *terminate* your
existence because of your suffering - or even terminate your suffering
without your approval.  Symmetrically, nobody has the right to impose
suffering on another entity.  In the scenario Lee Corbin was describing,
he would not only create a Winston Churchill thinkalike, he would also
maintain that Winston Churchill in an inescapable WWII sim, without
offering Churchill the chance to leave.  This is what I objected to.

--              --              --              --              -- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/ 
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence

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