From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 00:03:13 MDT
The psychological problem that most people have
against uploading, of course, is that of "being
inside a computer", or of knowing that one is really
just on a silicon chip.
A theme that probably should (and so probably has)
been stressed by SF writers, and any of those of us
who engage in discussions with the unconverted, is
the attendant near-omniscience it would provide.
Recall the computer vision experiments that prove
that one is only looking at a tiny area when one
has the impression that he or she is seeing with
clarity every word on a page. This impression is
strengthened, of course, by the seemingly instantaneous
reaction of the brain to eye movement. The freedom
to look anywhere in your field of vision translates
to awareness of nearly half the space you're in.
Now imagine a trillion cameras throughout the Earth
and solar system, equally responsive to you in a
similar way. Yes, you can see the insides of
particular machines that are running you, or at
least their cases, but you can also see all the
locations at which you used to live, all the cities,
mountains, deserts, and faraway moons and planets.
And you need do no more than, so it seems, move
your eyes.
Cries of freedom, knowledge, and liberation from
provincialism will issue from the first truly
uploaded, and will go far to persuade their brethren
of the advantages.
Lee
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