Rights and Responsibilities of the Disembodied Mind

by | Jun 4, 2022 | Analysis

 

Overview
Mind uploading– the idea that someday we will be able to transfer the information in our brains (our thoughts, memories, experiences, skill sets) into an external device, essentially creating a digital “copy” of ourselves–is now part of cultural zeitgeist. Books, tv shows, and movies speculate about it, while scientists and entrepreneurs dream of its endless potential. One thing is clear, however, that mind uploading would be a fundamental change in what means to be human. In class we have begun to consider the potential ethical and existential questions that such a technological innovation would raise, paying particular attention to the rights and responsibilities we might associate with a disembodied mind.

This is complex topic, with many unknowns. For example, there is significant debate about whether copying one’s brain is the same as copying one’s consciousness (in other words, whether your uploaded mind would still be “you”). How you answer this question of consciousness dramatically changes the way you might imagine the disembodied mind’s rights and responsibilities. If you think of the disembodied mind as unconscious computer code, for instance, you might afford it different rights than if you saw it as a conscious entity.

Most neuroscientists working on this issue today believe that the uploaded mind would be conscious (they think that your uploaded mind would still be you). So, for the purposes of this assignment, I would like you to adopt this position–imagine that when you copy a person’s mind, you are also copying their consciousness. In other words, I would like you to imagine that the Disembodied Mind would be just like its human counterpart, but without the body. It would have the same memories, emotions, personality, desires, fears, etc. Once created, the Disembodied Mind would continue to learn and grow, developing new memories of its own and having experiences beyond its human counterpart.

In the near future scientists have just uploaded the first mind. You have been asked to serve on the US Technoethics Commission which has been formed by the President under consultation from the National Academy of Sciences to set the ground rules for such a revolutionary technology. You will consider the following five key areas and questions.

1. Ownership: Who can own the disembodied mind? Can a human being sell part or all of a disembodied mind? Why or why not? Should there be a limit as to how many copies one human being can make of their mind? If so, what should that limit be and why?

2. Information Management: Once created, can the disembodied mind be deleted? Why or why not? Who should be responsible for sustaining and/or managing the disembodied mind’s existence in the long-term (i.e. paying any associated fees that may be associated with its existence and upkeep such as maintaining servers, electrical bills, software updates, etc)? Does the disembodied mind have the right to exist indefinitely? Why or why not? Should there be related social programs for the disembodied community (i.e. forms of care for the disembodied after their human counterpart is no longer living)? Why or why not? Should the disembodied mind have a right to privacy? Why or why not?

3. Labor: How should we understand the difference between human labor (i.e. labor performed by the human body) and disembodied labor (i.e. labor performed by the digital copy)? What rights and responsibilities afforded to human beings should also apply to the disembodied (i.e. limited work day, scheduled work breaks, vacation time, family leave, disability, child care, etc)? Should the disembodied mind be allowed to earn an income independent of its human counterpart? Why or why not?

4. Liability: If the disembodied mind commits a crime, who should be held responsible? If a disembodied mind is injured, how should that injury be redressed? How should such cases be adjudicated? Should human and disembodied crimes be processed through the same legal system? Why or why not?

5. Military Service: Should the disembodied mind be able to serve in the military and/or be used in military applications? Why or why not? If so, should they be afforded the same rights as embodied soldiers? Why or why not?

Importantly, you will need to provide formal recommendations, speaking from the position of the commission. For full credit, your recommendations must address each of the questions and provide specific justifications for each answer. In addition, you can add any questions to the sections that you feel are necessary to be addressed. Your recommendations must be consistent and cohesive across all five key areas. Please make sure that you have read through your recommendations to ensure consistency. Finally, your recommendations should be supported with sources from case law, government reports, and/or peer reviewed journal articles. (We will talk about what this means in class).

Sample solution

Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell. 

In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.


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God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.

Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.

To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.

 

References

Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.

Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.

Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.

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