Whenever I see this post, I think of this short story. I don’t see it linked here yet, so here ya go.
(Wrong copy linked, updated)
Oh my God that is horrifying. Reminds me of “I have no mouth and I must scream”
ah sweet man made horrors beyond my understanding
That was a great story, thanks for sharing. I love how the voice of the article sounds exactly like I’d expect from the kind of article we might read today. It reminded me a little of the 1972 “Lenna image” of Lena Forsén in Playboy that was frequently used for illustrating image processing algorithms (a practice that is now banned in most relevant journals.
I also liked how the story mentioned fiction about brain uploading. That was very meta, and I enjoyed it to an unreasonable degree.
Oh! I bet that’s where the name of the thing comes from! If you go back into the link, Lena is at the top of the page, and the original draft shared the name.
Thanks for that added context!
This is brilliant. It reminds of those asklemmy questions, “If you could Google one thing from the future”, or in this case read one Wikipedia page from the future. Obviously I wouldn’t know to find this page, but it reads about a world I, living now, don’t understand.
Man, that was a depressing reading
It is. If you like the concept though, the animated show Pantheon starts similarly, but goes an entirely different depressing direction :)
I disagree,
Pantheon
I think Pantheon goes in a very pleasant and inspiring direction. After going in a depressing direction first of course
So, it’s Gray Matters with more computers.
I’ve not read it; any good?
It’s definitely of its era, and I’d describe it more as memorable than good. I think it was a stylistic exercise by the author.
Great story, I thought of this too. What I like about this story is that so much of the horror is implied.
excerpt
MMAcevedo’s demeanour and attitude contrast starkly with those of nearly all other uploads taken of modern adult humans, most of which boot into a state of disorientation which is quickly replaced by terror and extreme panic. Standard procedures for securing the upload’s cooperation such as red-washing, blue-washing, and use of the Objective Statement Protocols are unnecessary. This reduces the necessary computational load required in fast-forwarding the upload through a cooperation protocol
…
MMAcevedo develops early-onset dementia at the age of 59 with ideal care, but is prone to a slew of more serious mental illnesses within a matter of 1–2 subjective years under heavier workloads. In experiments, the longest-lived MMAcevedo underwent brain death due to entropy increase at a subjective age of 145.
…
Towards the end of his life, as it became possible to run simulated humans in banks of millions at hundred-fold time compression, Acevedo indicated that being uploaded had been the greatest mistake of his life, and expressed a wish to permanently delete all copies of MMAcevedo.
You should put that in a spoiler tag :)
Really? OK… btw any idea why it’s called “Lena”?
No idea on the naming, I haven’t really looked into the author or their writing beyond this tbh. However if you click on the links at the top, it takes you through more of their work and author info, it might be buried there somewhere.
And the spoiler request is just because it’s really not that long and those are the juicy bits ;) I think it’s way more impactful inside the greater context, but I mean maybe I’m wrong on that, and have weird preferences.
Another comment gave probable context for that :)
ooh that makes sense, thanks!
!I agree. I think the technical tone of the story was great for keeping that eerie distance that makes the reader do the work of understanding the horror.
I found the time bit most creepy. When it first mentions about telling him what date it was, I felt unnerved because at that point, I had no way to know how long after the initial upload this piece was written from, in narrative. The sense of disorientation from this made me empathise even harder with MMAcevedo.
I think probably the part I found most horrifying was the bit discussing the kinds of work that MMAcevedo is useful for. I know a lot of people who work in research — enough that I know that academic nerds like Acevedo tend to find menial, repetitive work that doesn’t engage their brains to be especially soul destroying. But I suppose that’s the benefit of MMAcevedo right? No need to worry about destroying a person’s soul if they’re not a person, and they (are legally considered to) lack a soul. !<
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Can we please not accidentally Bobiverse these creeps, this sounds far too similar. Worst possible ending for humanity
I mean, I would.
Of course, the pool won’t have a ladder…
Don’t you touch my ladder
I would torrent any of them. Then I’d mod them into palworld so they can work to death while my pals chill in the japanese terms.
It doesn’t even matter what you do to them. You can torture them forever and you can choose whether they can remember or not.
A better hell of their own making I cannot think of.
I was thinking upload them into a twink femboy fuck doll but your idea is good too.
Normally I don’t kink shame, but ew. Twink femboys are one thing, but getting it on with tech bro consciousnesses is where I have to draw the line!
I think putting peter thiel into the body of a cum powered maid bot would be ethical and good
Too much risk he might like it, and more importantly, unethical to find somebody to supply the cum. The fundamental issue here is not whether he deserves the humiliation, it’s the collateral damage in inflicting it.
What other reason would he have to upload his consciousness but that?
what did twink femboy fuck dolls ever do to deserve that?
I would mod 'em in minecraft villagers. This is all i can say, my lawyer said to not continue.
Hahaaa, I’d mod them into fun Rimworld characters.
Under rated game
Oh no, Jeff was hit by a space junk while building his simple rocket and lost his leg! And Elon is there, on ketamine aaaand he overdosed by smoking a blunt and is lying unconscious. And all the robo cat droids broke down so no one can save them. Damn you Randy.
I think Elon could make it with one lung one kidney one arm and one leg and being drained of blood regularly
Oh yes, the “one” character. Juste one of everything!
Force them to trade for low prices with that metod
Wow sims 4 really had a long life.
It’s still being supported, but who knows for how much longer after the Saudi/Trump buyout. It’s most definitely going to be the last Sims game as EA gets hacked apart and gutted for profit in the coming months.
I read an article recently where EA said there wouldn’t be a Sims 5 because expecting people to get rid of all the content they’ve collected over the years would be mean.
Not sure how much I believe that, but it’s weird to think that in a few years/months, people will be reminiscing about today’s EA as the good EA
Purely theoretical, if you inherit, let’s say, Elon Musk’s money, and you then resurrect him. Do you have to give that money back?
Hmmm, a question that affects this is whether a resurrected person be considered the original or a genetically identical twin?
No, I think you would just inherit Elon Musk too. Make sure you feed him and take him on walks.
No, and I wouldn’t even ressurect him right away.
Id force his consciousness to play NES battletoads without break until he can beat it without cheating or warps before he can partially return to the real world.
I’m not sure I like these comments. Under the presumption that an uploaded consioness is even possible that’s still a sapient individual I don’t really think you can possibly do something to deserve eternal torment like some of these comments seem so gleeful about.
I don’t really think you can possibly do something to deserve eternal torment like some of these comments seem so gleeful about.
It wouldn’t be eternal. Most kids don’t have that kind of attention span.
Plus, these consciousnesses might be carefully protected the way major corporations have protected my SSN. So maybe the billionaires have nothing to worry about…
Read the other comments their are multiple people bringing up eternal simulated torture. I never said anything about the post itself I specifically called out the comments being weird.
Consciousness is a process, not just data. If they copy the weights of your brain neurons, they would be able to create new life that thinks like you, but is NOT you. Although that new life would be very confused and would honestly believe that it is you.
Thus, it’s neither eternal life nor eternal torment. Maybe torment of newly created AIs, but we didn’t come to “AI have rights” yet.
I have a super weird view of selfhood I think. I know that the uploaded existence wouldn’t be me but I also don’t care if that makes sense. If you’ve ever watched pantheon I would totally upload myself even if it killed me so that the uploaded me could exist.
So do it? Honestly the biggest issue is privacy, someone could analyse your dark fantasies in detail.
And yeah I think we will be able to simulate human brain at some point. What’s more interesting, would we be able to continue the thought process outside the biological box. Could I escape into machine? Doesn’t guarantee huge longevity boost as machines bug out & break from time to time, but still.
I share your consternation, but I also find it cathartic to imagine testing how long it would take the simulated consciousness of Elon Musk to develop a sense of compassion for workers when forced to work in a Tesla factory (and indeed, if that would ever happen). I imagine I’d be far less comfortable thinking this way if it wasn’t a concept squarely in the domain of science fiction. I think many of the most gleeful commenters are people who are presuming that simulating a consciousness in this way isn’t possible.
Some of them are dark, but you can’t do this anyway. The men they’re talking about need to think about their future a little bit and come back down to earth. Admittedly, I like the teenage girl playing sims with their character the most.
I actually think that this thread is extremely useful for demonstrating that the downside of obtaining immortality by uploading your consciousness is that you risk handing your digital soul into the hands of a wrathful and malicious deity for all eternity.
(Though honestly, I think that uploading is overrated anyway given that I will still be dead, so how does the continued existence of a copy of me help anything?)
They are being inserted into a 2014 video game. I think it is safe to assume it is just their likeness that is used in the game in this scenario. It’s not like the video game is capable of doing anything with the consciousness data of the files.
Why a future child is playing (what I understand to be) the worst game in the series is the strangest part of this story.
Yes these comments are implying that thier “likeness” is being tuned into a slave/forced to endure endless pain.
The post inserts them into a 2014 video game, but some comments here go quite a bit further.
Simping for fictional tech bros. God I hate this planet.
You hate this planet because someone expressed discomfort at the idea of tormenting an uploaded consciousness for eternity? That’s a weird reason, but to each their own I suppose.
WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE FICTIONAL TECH BROS
Me: Torture bad
You: why are you simping
Go to therapy.
If this kind of fictional torture is this bad to you I hope you never find out about slasher movies.
Them: “If I could, I’d torture and rape my enemies.”
Me: “That’s fucked up…”
You: “It’s only hypothetical, it’s a fictitious scenario!”
You’re still advocating for torture. Why does the hypothetical matter?
Do bear in mind that we’re talking about a select few persons that didn’t hesitate at all to do far, far worse to thousands of human beings.
Just google “usaid cuts impact”, which was deliberately caused by these tech bros without a shred of remorse.
And the scenario in this post is a fictional one, unlike the untold destruction caused by these cruel cuts.
I don’t like tech bros. If I could snap my fingers tomorrow and kill all billionaires I would do it. Its just bad to want to watch someone suffer and wanting them to suffer forever is inherently immoral. No human can do so much bad that they deserve eternal torment because humans can only live for a finite period of time and create a finite amount of harm.
And killing all billionaires is not going to cause immense pain for millions of people?
because humans can only live for a finite period of time and create a finite amount of harm.
For now.
I guess Roko’s Basilisk was inside us all along.
Its basically this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32109569-we-are-legion-we-are-bob
If you like this kind of read also check out Fall; Or Dodge in Hell
Well worth a read, especially if you like Andy Weir.
Better than most of Andy Weir’s books. Even tho bob is a bit of a Mary Sue.
Very much enjoyed the whole series.
There is a lot of it also in a Black Mirror Episode - USS Calllister.
I think it is also the only episode with two parts.
There is also the show “Upload” which is about a digital afterlife once you die.
and then you build a pool for them to play in without a ladder
I’d just download it and delete it 👌
The teenage girl is probably named AM.
Mpreg here we go!
If that girl is anything like me, she would be letting the techbro sims go for a swim, and then removing the ladder.
Great minds think alike!
Me trapping Sam Altman in a pool with no ladder
I’d be a bit more hands on, forcing him to do certain tasks and when he’s about to reach the item, enter buy mode, misplace the thing, unpause.
There should be a few billionaires trapped together. After all, leaving them without anything to eat would just be mean.
4 walls. No windows, no doors, no toilet…
