Re: Cryonics and uploading as leaps of faith? (was Re: Uploaded Omniscience)

From: Randall Randall (randall@randallsquared.com)
Date: Thu Jun 26 2003 - 20:38:35 MDT

  • Next message: Jef Allbright: "Re: Cryonics and uploading as leaps of faith? (was Re: Uploaded Omniscience)"

    On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 09:31 PM, Lee Corbin wrote:

    > Randall writes
    >
    >> On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 02:47 PM, Kevin Freels wrote:
    >>
    >>> For those who aren't spiritual, this isn't a big leap. You are the
    >>> information, regardless of how it is stored.
    >>
    >> It really is not that simple. Further, there is a problem with
    >> (the English) language, such that when one refers to a an object,
    >> it's not clear whether you mean that object or all objects of that
    >> class. If I talk about a book I own, it's unclear whether I mean
    >> that I own all the information in all books like it (as many say
    >> the author does), or only the physical instance of the book. This
    >> confusion is at the heart of most arguments about both "intellectual
    >> property" and uploading/copying of people.
    >
    > But if you are the same person that you were last month,
    > and you are the same person after you wake up from a coma
    > wherein your EEG was zero for an extended period, then
    > what are you besides information? What else could you
    > possibly be?

    Let me clarify: The part I disagree with is the point I inferred
    from "regardless of how it is stored" in the original post. I'm
    not interested in storage; I'm interested in processing. Runtime,
    as it were. I am not just the information required to run me, I
    am the instance that is running right now. I *was* the person I
    was last month, but I am now one month removed from being that
    person.

    People are processes, not data.

    In my current opinion, of course.

    Unfortunately, most debates about this get bogged down in differences
    between definitions of "same" and similar words and phrases, without
    the debaters seeming to be aware of that. I was just trying to head
    off another iteration of "extropians talking past each other". :) 

    -- 
Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com>
"Not only can money buy happiness,
  it isn't even particularly expensive any more."  -- Spike Jones

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu Jun 26 2003 - 20:49:39 MDT