From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Thu Aug 23 2001 - 10:31:58 MDT
Zero writes
> There is definitely a "level of abstraction" between you and the real world.
> Our senses, as well as they enable are ambling through physical space, only
> relate to our minds a poor semblance of what is really going on "out there."
That's the best way to look at it, I'd guess.
Mitch writes
> The more complicated issue to me is, what can be reduced to
> qualifying as the difference, between You and your body?
I think that this was solved the very first time someone started to
consider the possibility that your brain is in a vat in Moscow, or
to think about having a brain transplant.
> Are you feedback from a neuromuscular system, plus memory?
It's not possible to say what a person *is*. That's the dreaded "is" of
identity that Korzybski and everyone warn against. Give up on that.
> What about hundreds of other minor sensations and habits that
> will need to be duplicated sufficiently, in order to "fool"
> the uploaded personality?
Eugene answers that one, (although with too much brevity, almost to the
point of incomprehensibilitity):
> Make a dumb brute force upload, then you don't need to worry about anything.
> Then you can start tinkering, should you feel an irresistible urge.
> You don't have to understand anything about the emergent properties. Just
> model the physical layer with sufficient fidelity, and the emergent stuff
> is, well, it emerges spontaneously.
Lee
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