In a message dated 7/22/2001 5:16:16 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
asa@nada.kth.se writes:
<< Huh? I believe in pattern identity theory and functionalism, but I don't
see any pattern as more or less valid than any other. What this thought
experiment was really about is how to tell whether the upload is
acceptable from the point of view of the person being uploaded. I'm not
getting into the issue of whether the upload is the original or not,
that is a completely separate issue with no real answer. >>
For me, if there is an original human personality, left behind, at the end of
an upload process, it becomes unsatisfactory, since the subsequent persona,
can be defined as merely, a clone. The original electron patterns that
comprised the brain state are either conveyed to the network, or they are
not.
This gives me pause to think of the experiments accomplished by Anton
Zeilinger, and many others, regarding their Einstein Podolsky and Rosen
experiments where entanglement becomes the means to the end. I wonder if this
is a workable method, someday, to enable uploading to be workable?
Getting back to the topic, we should seek to direct that the first uploads,
at least, be sequential experiencers or continuers, rather then mere clones.
Its better for our society, I believe, and more logical and appealing to most
people. One reason for this is that the planet seems to small for many clones
and their original, whereas the solar system or and interstellar journey,
might be the best use of such clonnnings. I view uploads as "viable" only if
they transfer a mind, or "decant it" as sci-fi writer Fred Pohl has offered
up. The science, as we both see it, seems way beyond the current vector of
technology.
Mitch
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