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Which age would you prefer to live in?- The information age or The Sundering?
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(11-27-2016, 12:05 PM)Drashner1 Wrote:
(11-24-2016, 04:47 AM)QwertyYerty Wrote: I perfer my current life over either of the options I presented.

Now that I think about it, the Interplanetary age wouldn't be pleasant either. What do y'all think?

The Interplanetary Age lasted nearly 300yrs. During that time a lot of changes took place, both positive and negative, so it would be an oversimplification to say that the entire period was either pleasant or unpleasant.

Of the three choices provided, the IP age seems like it would be preferred.

Todd

I figured the IP age would be preferred, although as I read between the lines the IP age seems a lot more like Black Mirror than I had originally thought.

If the IP age is going to be nice to live in, it will require widespread use of government redistribution. During the Information (IN) age widespread use of automation will almost certainly lead to mass unemployment on Earth. I understand that there will be additional demand for labor due to space exploitation, but in setting and in RL there is no way it will more cost efficient to redesign genetics than use robotics or AI.

Now that I think about it, I am curious what force pushed for genetic research over AI or robotics research. There are a lot more ethical, political, and research costs for every gain in productivity via genetically engineering a new human sub- species as opposed to robotics or AI. At this point in the setting a Vec which would be considered sophant in 11K will not be likely treated as such in the IP age.

While there wouldn't be many sapient vecs in the IP age, there would be a huge number of animal equivalent intelligence, many of whom would be as conscious as a dog. Most people recognize that dogs experience pain and advocate for basic rights for them (in addition to animal rights in general). Most AIs would not be much better off, since even the sophant and super intelligent AIs of the IP age had a minority of global power for one or two of the first centuries of their existence. The second wave of AIs were often developed in hostile conditions or treated poorly (1) (much of which would be considered torture in other contexts), and they would be unlikely to have the option to retaliate or self- terminate early in their lives, like a reverse scenario of I have no mouth and I must scream.

Anyone have thoughts? Did I miss something?

(1)
http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/48bdab3a92bad
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RE: Which age would you prefer to live in?- The information age or The Sundering? - by QwertyYerty - 11-27-2016, 01:04 PM

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