--
On Sun, 12 Jul 1998 10:35:56 -0700 Hal Finney <hal@rain.org> writes:
>Suppose you are an upload. Someone proposes to pause your program for
>a moment, then resume it. Will this kill you? (Note that such behavior
>is an inherent property of timesharing computer systems, and that in
fact
>the discrete nature of computer simulations implies that there can be
>said to be a "pause" between each clock tick.)
I would say probably not. (Note that I am *not* sure.)
>Someone proposes to pause your program and then resume it on another
>machine. Will this kill you? (Note that such behavior is an inherent
>property of load-balancing multi-processor systems.)
It seems likely that it would.
>Suppose the computer has redundancy internally so that everything is
>duplicated, two copies of each processor side by side, likewise for
memory
>elements, communication circuits, etc. You are run on such a computer.
>Someone proposes to remove some element of the redundancy so that
>there will no longer be this internal duplication. Will this kill you?
It may depend on which one I am, or if
it matters. :( I don't know.
>Suppose the two copies are run on two different computers. They are in
>perfect synchrony and all signals on one are duplicated on another.
This
>is another way of providing redundancy. Someone proposes to turn off
>one of the computers permanently. Will this kill you?
Same as above.
>The last scenario seems essentially to represent the situation you
describe
>where you would view it as commiting suicide.
I disagree. Even this last scenario implies that each cannot consider the other, and each believes that it is the only one.
>I have tried to set up a
>chain of situations where the first is clearly not a matter of dying,
>and where there is a relatively small change between each step in the
>chain. Presumably you will draw a line somewhere and say, this step
does
>not kill me but the next one will. This may help to clarify what the
>elements are which seem important to you as part of your identity and
>which you want to preserve in order to "stay alive".
Unfortunately, much of *my* discomfort with
this lies in my ignorance of how consciousness
works. I think if we understood it, I'd be able to
delineate exactly where the problem lies.
I do not think that it is likely that we *will* fully
understand consciousness before the first
uploads, however, so I will be satisfied if
during the upload, the uploadee is fully
conscious at all times, and at no point in
the upload are there two complete copies
of the uploadee. That is, a neuron by
neuron upload, while conscious, would be
fine, I think.
--digsig
Wolfkin.
5CaaHx/ncmWI7mi94lMRbZ5naWfoiAiWyG37UUfee/P
pkN/Te7W76OJOrmbpUd3Jmk5Z4L/EXqIp1G4lBHi
4SG9bQns7HlRHRh0ILh2+sCb73CPfQKSa1tROb+B9
wolfkin@flatoday.infi.net | ICQ: 3043097
E-Gold Acct: 100678 @ www.e-gold.com
On a visible but distant shore a new image of man,
The shape of his own future, now in his own hands.
| Johnny Clegg
_____________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com
Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]