From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Oct 12 2002 - 09:50:02 MDT
Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
> I don't know about that. Consider an experiment where there are only
> two personalities, one that answers yes and the other that answers no.
> This is so about a yes/no question....To represent that personality in the
> two-state environment only takes two bits.
You are ignoring the subjective experience of real people. The supjective
rocesses involved in reaching the answer to a yes/no question can be quite
complex, involving many subjective considerations related to personal
temperament, particularly if the question is one that involves value
judgments. We are not concerned here with making blind mechanical robots of
ourselves, in which case your line of reasoning might be useful. We are
concerned with transporting our actual personalities into the transhuman
future.
The rest of your letter is also a bit too obtuse for me.
My position can be summarized as follows:
Premise 1:
Some genes influence personality.
Premise 2:
Gene expression (the products of protein synthesis controlled by genes)
changes through time in response to internal and external stimuli.
Premise 3:
The genes that influence personality are not exempt from this variability of
expression. Their varied expressions through time affect brain structures
which in turn affect personality.
I believe I have produced published peer-reviewed research here to establish
the veracity of all three premises.
Conclusion:
The state of an individual's neuronal structures today will not be
sufficient to preserve the personality through time.
To preserve personality, such that our responses to future stimuli will be
true-to-personality, we must encode for (i.e., emulate) the genetic
instructions that decide their various expressions to stimuli not currently
being experienced.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) makes for an excellent and very convenient
example. If we are in the midst of a dark gloomy winter and if those of us
with SAD want to upload ourselves now into some inorganic substrate, then
we'll need to include in our upload an emulation or code for the genetic
instructions that influence the manner in which our personalities respond to
changes in the seasons. Otherwise we will fail to be "who we are" in the
coming summer.
-gts
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:17:30 MST