From: Chris Russo (extropy@russo.org)
Date: Sun Dec 10 2000 - 23:40:05 MST
At 13:20 +0930 12/11/00, Emlyn wrote:
>What's a computer engineer? Is that a dude that designs hardware?
Yes.
>It is not even the contents of it's memory
>addresses and the registers, and all that guff, while it is running; it is
>the actual things being done while it is running, as a result of those
>contents. Atoms flowing around, gates doing gatey stuff, hardrives whizzing,
>stuff happening. Not information.
Yes, but so what? We're talking about being restored in an emergency
if your original body dies. Within the confines of the original
conjecture, you would barely notice a blip in your thoughts between
when you were one place and when you were another.
I passed out one time when I was giving blood. One minute, I was
sitting in a chair chatting with the nurse. The next minute, I'm on
a couch, being dabbed with a wet towel. Oh my gosh! I lost my
consciousness thread that was running! Life cannot go on... :)
> > Assuming that human beings are just biological computers, it should
>> eventually be possible to use the same techniques once we work out
>> all of the neurochemical details.
>
>Undoubtedly this is possible, undoubtedly this will work, especially from
>the point of view of the engineers & admins building and running such
>systems (ie: from the outside). What will the subjective experience be for
>those so encoded, however?
Wouldn't the goal be to make the subjective experience in the new
body unchanged from the memories of the previous subjective
experience? The more continuity, the better, I'd think.
What would you be willing to accept in order to achieve immortality?
A day of amnesia where you just don't remember that day - because you
weren't alive? Degradation of some of your memories from your old
body? What's a little schizophrenia in exchange for immortality? :)
Regards,
Chris Russo
--
"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought
or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet
hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance
which does harm."
-- Marcus Aurelius, MEDITATIONS, VI, 21
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