Re: Uploading, info theory, and threads of consciousness

From: Peter C. McCluskey (pcm@rahul.net)
Date: Sat Nov 02 1996 - 17:02:09 MST


 jamesr@best.com (jamesr@best.com) writes:
>Yes, but I think that most people here want to *experience* the
>upload, not generate a bunch of clones who *think* they were
>uploaded. In a destructive upload, our stream of consciousness would
>cease to exist. We would be dead and there would be a computer
>program running that would swear it was us, and would in fact be us,
>albeit running on a separate stream of consciousness.

 Just like a stream of consciousness ceases when I go to sleep
and a separate stream of consciousness is created when my body
wakes up? There will probably be something unique about the
discontinuity involved in uploading, but I have heard no reason
to expect that the mind which uploading produces lacks anything
that the mind which will inhabit my body after a more familiar
discontinuity has.

> I don't think
>too many people would terminate their own stream of consciousness to
>create new independant ones. What would be the advantage?

 Greater wealth through the ability to work at faster clock speeds.
More security through the ability to make distributed backups.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter McCluskey | "Don't blame me. I voted for Kodos." - Homer Simpson
pcm@rahul.net | http://www.rahul.net/pcm | Vote Libertarian! See
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