[this is the fourth line]
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 independant 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.
Transfering 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
intoitpres@aol.com
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.
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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.)