From: Hubert Mania (humania@t-online.de)
Date: Tue Oct 29 2002 - 00:46:40 MST
Concerning the discussion about uploading, I wrote:
>> I bet anything that we will still discuss this in 2040.
> >There's no hope, Eugen :-)
And Frank suggested:
> So s.o. should put together a "Copy Paradox FAQ" which should be a
> must-read for everyone allowed to join a discussion like this ... ;-)
To make it even harder for them to disturb our scholarly discourse with
annoying beginner`s questions we might put up a contest or a written exam,
some kind of a freshman's initiation, elaborated and diabolically conducted
by an ExI celebrity of the candidate's own choice. If she answers 95 % of
the questions correctly she wins a virtual candlelight dinner with her
favourite ExI examiner. I think this might be a happy solution to get rid of
fundamental doubts about personal identity and continuity of consciousness
being preserved in the uploading process. Which after all is one of our
ultimate goals, right? That`s why I can already hear them freshmen singing:
"Nobody ever expects the Uploading Paradox Inquisition!"
> It is my feeling that we should first get rid of the notion of
> consciousness as a *thing*, instead adopting the notion of
> consciousness as a *process*. Then the question of identity looks
> quite different ...
I guess the term "continuity of consciousness" already implies the notion of
a process, no matter if you choose a destructive or constructive uploading
version. Destroy yourself the Moravec way and keep on living as a solitary,
a unique successor of your former self, or choose to create 2,3,4 duplicates
of you and start a happy (?) family with *all* of you.
There might be another solution of the process that still seems to be a
paradox: keep on being the one and only representative of yourself, put the
copies to sleep immediately, before they can develop a notion of their
identity and get one of them activated when you're in serious trouble or on
the edge of finally and definitely dying. But this is a tricky issue
because it raises another fundamental topic: Is it ethically justifiable to
put your copies to sleep and have them at your disposal? One would think: as
long as they are still only "cool software" I must not grant them the right
to develop a warm in vivo existence ... ExI stance...by building up a meat
body around their digital core via nanotech.
But time will probably prove us all wrong. The ultimate way of preserving
your continuity of consciousness might turn out to look completey different
from our speculations today. So let's be generally generous with these ideas
and try to be open for some fresh and more beautiful solutions.
humania
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