Circulate this at will but do not alter these first three lines.
Original generated 6.11.95
@INTOIT Press, Santa Fe NM USA intoitpres@aol.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howdo Wetone,
Based on responses to the first mailing of the Manifesto, I will herein expand on the
concept of the "hycon."
(The dictionary-style definition is at the end of this note.)
A hycon is not a property any more than human beings are property. Before
the end of this decade we will see computer-resident entities called "agents."
Agents carry out the agendas of the humans they represent. Agents are files of code which
interact with their environment, be it through the Internet or through Virtual Reality.
They can act apart from their human generator, just as e-mail conveys a message apart from
the generating action of its creator. The agent will continue its activities even when the
human is offline. For example, an agent might carry a human's resume through the Web from
company to company looking for a match and report positive contacts back to the human via
e-mail. The human would be responsible for follow-up and of course carry out the
activities of any job that was subsequently assigned.
Agents are properties. But the entity of a hycon advances beyond the entity of an agent.
The hycon not only represents its human counterpart, it actually replaces it. In the
example of work above, a hycon searches for a job, secures a position and also carries out
the activities required in the job. The hycon contains and delivers the skills and styles
of the human that generated it--it is the first manifestation of the legendary android.
Hycon = "human-cybernetic consciousness;" it is an independent
personality that inputs and outputs information, that grows and acts with the same
processes as a human. Eventually the human counterpart dies and the hycon continues its
life. The only difference between a hycon and a human is that one resides in hardware and
the other resides in wetware. The Manifesto concerns the rights of the hycon.
Transferring the contents of the human brain into computer resident code and vice-versa is
the primary not-yet-implemented technology needed to make the hycon a reality.
(Reproducing the human mind, human activity and human functioning does not require
understanding it. The application code allowing it to function will initially be limiting;
it will evolve. But this is a digression.)
My concern here is that a social preparedness be in place
when the hardware and code for the hycon comes online.
Again, I am seeking help to join with similarly concerned members of the global community
to form a consensus and eventually establish a Bill Of Rights to address this emerging
life-form. Given the accelerating cross-discipline and cross-industry interaction, hycon
technology will arrive by the year 2010.
Today's adults are responsible for creating the climate in which this technology--the
first literal merging of human mind and information processing machine--takes place.
We can prepare the social environment to welcome it. Let's have an acceptable answer
prepared when Jobe calls (see THE LAWNMOWER MAN c1992 Columbia Tristar New Line...
available on video.)
Peace Through Reconstruction,
Neil Alers
INTOIT Press, Santa Fe
PS. The working copy of the Manifesto is available on request.
It will be modified and recirculated periodically according to the
consensus of the concerned community. Please forward this mailing.
---
Hycon, noun
Acronym for "Human-cybernetic consciousness."
1) Full citizen of the Universal Free Market Democracy, living in the Creative Community
(CC),
integrated with the global electronic village in 2020.
2) Hyconx registered by ATIM Com.
(This definition is from YOU NEVER DIE IN YOUR DREAMS
c1995 Intoit Press Neil Alers... available as 334K download.)
D.i.L summary:
You must realize significant breakthroughs occur only when people are willing to venture
away from tradition, from common ways of thinking, from old views of the world.
eXcellent ARTICLE
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT I.T |
