Re: The copy paradox

Holger Wagner (Holger.Wagner@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Tue, 4 Nov 1997 18:17:57 +0100 (MET)


On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Clemens Pittino wrote:

> If you digitize your brain, you can copy it exactly. Who am I, if I would
> let run my mind on 2 hosts ?

That question bugged me a lot until I read the Extropy-FAQ. There, you
find a description of uploading - which is a process where you add
technology to your brain one at a time, so your consciousness gets used
to it. This way it's always you (but an improved version of you)...
(I'm sure someone else can explain this a lot better)

If you copy your brain, I'm quite sure that there will not be any change
to your consciousness - but you may have created a new instance of you.
It will probably develop independently from you. This means: you remain
the same, but there's another 'being' who exactly resembles you in the
beginning. Since you will have different experiences, after a while there
may be two quite different 'beings'...

I think there's also something called merging (which would probably be
very interesting), but I know nothing about that...

I think the major question is: where is your consciousness. I believe
that a 'consciousness' can only exist in one single instance that is
somehow networked (that means, a network could have a consciousness - but
not two seperate networks). This means that uploading your consciousness
can only happen gradually.

later,
Holger