From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Mon Dec 04 2000 - 15:35:57 MST
At 14:13 -0800 12/4/00, Nicq MacDonald wrote:
> > >A backup would just be a copy- your consciousness would be gone forever.
>>
>> Could you define "consciousness" for us in the sense of describing
>> what you would have lost by being restored from a backup?
>
>The awareness of my self from a subjective point of view- my own existence.
>A backup would only be a copy of me. To an external observer, it would be
>identical, and to it, it would be consciously aware as myself, but it would
>not be me. I would be gone, my conscious with me.
Is it the physical substance of which you're comprised that you'd be
adverse to leaving behind?
Is it the lapse in time from when your consciousness was in one body,
and then in another?
At 11:35 -0800 12/4/00, Nicq MacDonald wrote:
>I'm not going to download myself,
>however- I like having a body, and, until the tech is availiable for me to
>transmute myself into other forms, I'll keep it.
It does sound, though, that uploading could be an option for you if
the right "upgrades" were available. Isn't uploading into another
form really just restoring your backup to a new medium?
I'm not trying to pin you down or anything. Actually, this whole
Extropian thing is fairly new to me, so I'm trying to decide how I
feel (in a logical goal-oriented sense) about these issues. Where
possible, I'd like to avoid basing those feelings on sentimentality.
I don't believe that I have a spirit in any metaphysical sense, so if
the sum total of who I am can be described in terms of my neural
chemistry, I'm wondering if it's any real loss for me to accept
backup restoration as continuity of self - if that backup can
completely restore my neural chemistry (or whatever emulates it).
If I'm wrong about having a spirit, then that spirit will go off and
do its little spirit thing apart from my new incarnation anyway -
puhraise Jayzuz. Who knows, it might even attach itself to the new
entity that becomes me. Ain't that a slap happy scenario?
So, if you (as the new entity) can't tell the difference; and your
loved ones can't really tell the difference; and there's no
metaphysical difference - does it really matter?
>See the recent movie "The Sixth Day". I can't remember the name of the
>character at the moment, but near the end of the movie
Aieee! stop stop stop. I still intend to see this movie!
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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