From: Alfio Puglisi (puglisi@arcetri.astro.it)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 02:55:18 MDT
On Wed, 25 Jun 2003, Lee Corbin wrote:
>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.
I vaguely recall a Greg Bear SF book, "Eternity" (the sequel to the more
famous Eon), where among other things ...
(SPOILERS)
...humanity is more or less in perpetual war with an alien race called the
Jarts. A captured Jart is uploaded into a computer, and then forgotten
about. The main character, for some reason I don't recall, proceeds to
load the Jart in the spare memory of his brain implants, believing that he
can control the alien, but he only starts a battle of will with an
uncertain outcome.
Mentioned in the book is a fictional theorem, stating (if I recall
correctly) that a mind does not have a way to know if it is uploaded or
not, or where, if the necessary measures are taken. It seems that the Jart
does not know about the theorem, because it discovers right away what's
happening...
Ciao,
Alfio
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