The "Great Silence"

[dyingsun]

How would 'compassion' or for that matter, love compute though. Love and hate seem to be 'granted' upon us, ..|.. you, evolution.

 

[mike]

Its a good question and one we will perhaps have to answer one day.

The simple answer is love is a chemical reaction

Love Is a Chemical Reaction, Scientists Find | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 13, 2009 | PBS

And as with any neuro function can be synthesised within the simulation

But to delve further, do we need it ?

Its not uncommon during evolutionary adaptation for some functions to become redundant, no longer a helpful or useful trait for the new organisms

So what’s not an adaptation? The answer: a lot of things. One example is vestigial structures. A vestigial structure is a feature that was an adaptation for the organism’s ancestor, but that evolved to be non-functional because the organism’s environment changed.

Evolution 101: Adaptation

From a biological ie procreational pov love is a useful trait , but that may not be the case with a post biological mind.
Then again it may be an essential element in such a simulation as a way of adjusting from a biological to a post biological existance. Certainly virtual simulations indistinguishable from the real thing from the pov of the experiencer could accomodate sexual and romantic activitys.
Uploaded persona would still be interacting with their biological offspring, children grandchildren etc etc and thus it may be that such emotions continue to serve a useful purpose in the uploaded state.

As an evolutionary step, i imagine the same rules that have always applied will.

Is this trait useful for the new organism or not.
If its useful it gets retained and even enhanced, if not it becomes vestigial

 

[mike]

I had never heard of Paul Davies when i formed my own hypothesis that many if not all aspects of the enigma might be reconciled within a post biological model.
So i was blown away when i came across his quote

Paul Davies, a British-born theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist and Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science and Co-Director of the Cosmology Initiative at Arizona State University, says in his new book The Eerie Silence that any aliens exploring the universe will be AI-empowered machines. Not only are machines better able to endure extended exposure to the conditions of space, but they have the potential to develop intelligence far beyond the capacity of the human brain.
"I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," Davies writes. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."

As individuals we chalk up (on average) less than 100 orbits of our star and then are gone.
Often losing our ability to mentate towards the end due to the breakdown of the biological equipment our minds run on.

To minds that may have enjoyed thousands of years of uninterupted and even augumented mental existance, we may not even qualify as sentient.
Just as we view the other animals here which we know "think" and even use tools in some cases.

Abductions, experiments, the indifference all mirrored in the models we now use in dealing with the other species here on earth