Michael, Michael.... You're not thinking this uploading thing through. As an
upload, you can experience *everything* you experience in the flesh *and* a
whole lot more. If you want to explore the physical universe, just create
sensors which will inform you of whatever aspects of the universe you are
interested in. There is no reason to encase oneself in a virtual bubble in the
uploaded realm, with no links to the rest of the physical world. One can be
an upload and still control robots and use all kinds of different sensors.
The difference is that one could have ones' sensors and action machines
scattered all over the place, instead of located near each other like we have
now, with our bodies. One could even create a robot that would provide one
with the same range of sensory experiences and action capabilities that our
current bodies provide us with. The crucial difference is that if that robot
gets destroyed, you are still alive, and you can build another one. You could
actually build several flesh-like robots and operate them all simultaneously.
One idea that I find interesting is to build billions of various kinds of
probes and scatter them around the world, with one's mind linked to all of
them, so that you could keep a general watch on the whole planet and various
other locations around the solar system and beyond, all at once. Each probe
would be small, self-repairing and self-reproducing. Some or all will have
the ability to manipulate their environments, so you could make changes to the
world. The probes, which communicate with each other, could also each have
processors on board which carry out some of your cognitive processes. You'd
be a very distributed being, able to observe and act in many places at once.
Very hard to kill off.
The possibilites for an upload are mind-boggling. We have nothing to lose but
our limitations.
- David Musick
-- Learn to imagine the profoundly alien. --