From: Harvey Newstrom (mail@HarveyNewstrom.com)
Date: Mon Dec 11 2000 - 13:13:08 MST
Emlyn wrote,
>There is a line of argument in this "consciousness" debate, which sometimes
>becomes explicit, which is this:
>
>"Consciousness doesn't matter; it probably doesn't even exist. There is no
>consciousness, so no problem of consciousness."
Yes, some of the arguments boil down to definitions and word games.
It avoids the questions, but doesn't address the real question. If
there is no consciousness, then I merely need to find a better word
for whatever it is I am trying to save. The question and goal
remains, even if we keep changing the words.
The other interesting point is that most of these immortality
discussions go off into copy discussions. And most of the copy
discussions go off into making exact duplicates that cannot deviate
by a single molecule. This is strange, because the main goal of
uploading is to change. We want to get into a better body with
faster mental processes, and more information pre-programmed. I want
to change almost everything about me, yet I still want to feel that
it is me. As a meat-human, I grow and change constantly. I want the
technology to help me do it faster. Any discussions of making an
exact copy that doesn't changes misses the mark totally for my
purposes.
-- Harvey Newstrom <HarveyNewstrom.com>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:32:19 MST