It’s all about options. The option to restrict one’s options is also an additional option to consider. True maximization of freedom is not possible without partial restrictions of freedom. This includes the freedom to join a culture that won’t let you leave, at least not for a certain period of time.
That sounds paradoxical, but it appears to make at least some sense. Truly maximising options does seem to have some rather counter-intuitive consequences. Are there any more of these counter-intuitive consequences you want to tell me about?
People also may choose to dive into virtual world and forget that something like an outside world even exists. Those people are called the opaque , as opposed to the lucid who know that there is an outside world. That’s all about maximizing the level of immersion into that virtual world.
Do you think we might be some of those people who made that questionable decision?
Possibly. We might have even subjected ourselves to a series of reincarnations in this simulated world until some kind of escape condition is met.
What might such an escape condition look like? Absolute enlightenment? Realising that we live in a simulated world?
It really could be anything, and we might be absolutely clueless about it. That’s one of the most radical implications of maximal freedom. It can mean imprisoning ourselves in a prison we might only be able to escape by the sheer luck of stumbling upon the key for the exit.
Ah, but at least that implies some chance of escape. Wouldn’t it be funny, if both of us found that “key” and found ourselves in your science fiction world again?
Hmm, if that happened, I would suspect that all of this had been a huge setup.
That’s a fair assumption. Anyway, if you lived in a world in which cultural silvanism exists, what kind of culture would you want to join?
I suppose in a world in which my creative outbursts are met with a certain degree of interest. Living in a culture in which I could be an anthropomorphic horse would be preferable, too.
Ah, so you really identify as furry, as your Twitter, umm, X avatar suggests?
Yeah, I’m usually not very vocal about that interests of mine, but going to furry conventions is a lot of fun. I’d like to explore full morphological freedom, once the technology for that is truly mature.
So, you won’t sign up for a beta test for an experimental transition to becoming an anthropomorphic horse?
Not at the moment. I have other more serious priorities.
Like what?
Like spreading my ideas. They might actually shape our future.
It would be nice to have some more Freedom in our lives.
I think that it a decent conclusion to our interview. Thank you for interviewing me again.
It’s my pleasure! And I will feel free to interview you again in the future.