Digital minds: descendents or rivals?
Should we think of digital minds as our descendents, or our rivals?
If they are descendents, we can think of them as children—different from us in important ways, but carrying on the flame.
If they are rivals, well—they are rivals. If they inherit the future, then we have, in some important sense, lost.
If you think that digital minds will inherit the future whether we like it or not, the main way in which this matters is how it affects your attitudes toward this future today. And so perhaps we should make more effort to like it.