From: avatar (avatar@renegadeclothing.com.au)
Date: Fri Feb 07 2003 - 21:20:30 MST
Max writes
> > If there is no soul, as I am convinced. And if uploading is possible, as
> > I am convinced, then the I/mind is just the calculations taking place
> > inside the brain. It is not the brain itself.
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The brain is electro-chemical. Therefore you have to transmit not just electrical information but chemical information. You have to retrieve it without destroying it before measuring it. Nanotechnology can do this, even if scanning cannot.
Uploading is certainly possible but I will not be joining those partaking in such suicidal actions. Quantum splitting I have no objections to, for myself. Nor uploading, which I am happy to do.
I retain a distinction between my nervous system and:
any dedicated-memory or dedicated-information storage devices or indeed any sensory input and also any interface mechanisms for simulated sensory input and so forth. I can plug into the virtual web but not extend myself into it neurologically.
I can amalgamate with other brains bia broadcast linkage, sharing thoughts and so on, but I have to change my mindstruct to enable this to occur. Since mindstruct changes are possible given continuity and section-by-section replacement, this is certainly possible. I will be cautious to an extent, because the nature of human cosciousness is linked to the design of the brain, so too radical a change may remove essential components of my chosen personality.
In terms of protection (which uploading supposedly provides for those who don't believe it's suicide and rough-copying) I'll prefer to rely on instituting systems of universal protective shielding (activated with consent).
A very cautious person(s) might be in continuous broadcast linkage with two or three bodies, and constantly sharing everything between them. If the rate of exchange is as fast as normal thought (for a traditional human) then they may function as one amalgamated personality with three bodies. The death of one body would be of less consequence then. This is a variation on uploading but not the same as it. It could also be achieved by physically splitting your brain and body into three brains and bodies, all the while retaining the linkage. Currently envisaged nanotechnology and broadcast/linkage developments should enable the aforementioned in the future. What is not currently reasonably proved by relatively normal standards is the distance such could occur over. Delays of hours between bodies in different parts of the solar system could be compensated for and included in amalgamations given the potential of computronium add-ons, however the longer the distances and the more complex the Minds concerned the more difficult such compensation would become. Under the assumptions of 2003.
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