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From: "den Otter" <otter@globalxs.nl>
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Subject: Re: Uploading
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 1997 12:41:57 +0200
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----------
> YakWaxx@aol.com On Fri, 5 Sep 1997 Wrote:
>
> >Although that mind may seem the same to everyone else, and the
mind
> >itself may 'think' it's you, it might not actually be 'you'
> >(because you're dead).
>
John K Clark johnkc@well.com responds:

> Perhaps that's already happened, perhaps you died yesterday and entered
the
> realm of total oblivion, perhaps you're not conscious, perhaps you just
think
> you are. If I were to somehow prove to you that that's exactly what
happened
> can you think of any reason you should be the slightest bit upset about
it?
> I can't.
>
[If you don't care about dying, why even bother with uploading at all?
There are
easier and cheaper ways to kill yourself, like doing nothing at all, for
example].

Maybe it doesn't bother you because you "know" you exist here and now, and
that your memories are real and your own. The new "you" (the uploaded
duplicate) will probably think the same, but that doesn't change the fact
that he/she/it is almost certainly a fake, a clone/twin whatever, but not
*you*, because you are *dead* due to massive and irreversible brain injury.
Suicide on the threshold of the new age,
to put it dramatically. "Direct" uploading might very well become the
number one cause of death among progressive individuals in the 21st century
;)

Why take this enormous risk with direct uploading when you can do the whole
process gradually and without ever losing your consciousness, IMO the best
safeguard against "forgery".

The direct vs gradual uploading dilemma (which kind of reminds of religious
disputes) may be more serious than the killer goo problem, because
virtually
no-one really wants global destruction, but many will be queueing (like
lemmings?) to get their fast upload, and (more seriously) this will
probably be
the method of choice for the reanimation of suspension patients (who'll
thus be killed without having given their consent). Of course, they'll
probably never know
what hit them...and their duplicates will live happily ever after. Hmm...

DdO
__________________________

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