The American Polity and Technological Singularity 2: Uploaded Minds

This is part two of a three part series of how American Politics can work with the Technological Singularity.

Part One was about AI's or Artificial Intelligences

This part is what happens to all the Uploaded minds.

And what is the Technological Singularity?

"The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. There are several technologies that are often mentioned as heading in this direction. The most commonly mentioned is probably Artificial Intelligence, but there are others: direct brain-computer interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation. Some of these technologies seem likely to arrive much earlier than the others, but there are nonetheless several independent technologies all heading in the direction of the Singularity – several different technologies which, if they reached a threshold level of sophistication, would enable the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence.
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"Human intelligence is the foundation of human technology; all technology is ultimately the product of intelligence. If technology can turn around and enhance intelligence, this closes the loop, creating a positive feedback effect. Smarter minds will be more effective at building still smarter minds. This loop appears most clearly in the example of an Artificial Intelligence improving its own source code, but it would also arise, albeit initially on a slower timescale, from humans with direct brain-computer interfaces creating the next generation of brain-computer interfaces, or biologically augmented humans working on an Artificial Intelligence project.

"Some of the stronger Singularity technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and brain-computer interfaces, offer the possibility of faster intelligence as well as smarter intelligence. Ultimately, speeding up intelligence is probably comparatively unimportant next to creating better intelligence; nonetheless the potential differences in speed are worth mentioning because they are so huge. Human neurons operate by sending electrochemical signals that propagate at a top speed of 150 meters per second along the fastest neurons. By comparison, the speed of light is 300,000,000 meters per second, two million times greater. Similarly, most human neurons can spike a maximum of 200 times per second; even this may overstate the information-processing capability of neurons, since most modern theories of neural information-processing call for information to be carried by the frequency of the spike train rather than individual signals. By comparison, speeds in modern computer chips are currently at around 2GHz – a ten millionfold difference – and still increasing exponentially. At the very least it should be physically possible to achieve a million-to-one speedup in thinking, at which rate a subjective year would pass in 31 physical seconds. At this rate the entire subjective timespan from Socrates in ancient Greece to modern-day humanity would pass in under twenty-two hours."  

After the AI's are created comes the Uploaded minds.  But who Governs those minds? And where does the American Polity fit in such a Brave New World?

The best movie examples of Uploaded minds comes from a few places.

Let's start with the most well known; A small independent picture called The Matrix:


The Matrix "Desert of the Real,"


eXistenZ, "Victory of the Real,"



The 13th Floor, Trailer



In the movies, it seems the protagonist must fight to figure out what is real? and what is not real? 

In the Charles Stross book, Accelerando, the minds uploaded are real while the flesh bodies go the way of the Dodo.  Throughout the book (and its sequel, Glasshouse), each place where the minds are uploaded have its own type of rulers.

Before the creation of the Polities of the Mind, first the AI's must be birthed.

However, how can someone bring the US Constitution and American Government where realities very existence can be questioned?

Simple. 

Going in a Polity of the Mind should be like buying a car.  Kick the tires, see if the world that exists has some basic Bill of Rights for Humanity and Uber-Humanity; Voting Rights, Census counts and Representation in the Real world and the "real," world. 

Can you imagine Uploading your mind into a Dictatorship? That would be a virtual hell.  (Hence, why this writer supports Wilsonianism in the Real world).  If there are laws governing the Polities (before they are created), then the AI's will interact with humans content to exist beyond the flesh.

However, the laws must be created as the technology advances.  Because, without it, we will all remain slaves to the slave drives.  

And what do Conservative, Republicans and tea partiers believe in? That the individual can exist within the (American) polity to grow and thrive.  If the Polity of the Real goes under the jurisdiction of Democrats, then those minds in the machine will be slaves to the State.  

The final part will be in August.  That piece will show how the American polity slouches slowly towards the Singularity.

My question: Could you imagine living within a Polity of the Mind? How do you imagine its Governance?