From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Thu Sep 05 2002 - 02:53:00 MDT
On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 09:49:49AM +0200, Hubert Mania wrote:
> Anders wrote:
>
> > If you don't trust anybody, then the best approach is probably
> > just to have a number of backups with corresponding bodies,
>
> What exactly are those corresponding bodies made of? The crucial question
> of my scenario is even simpler than you think: When the discussion on this
> list comes to distributed copies or backups I always wonder what the exact
> condition of such a backup is. Is it pure software, is it a combination of
> software and artificial body - some kind of "robody" - or are they just
> sleeping flesh, built from nanobots after an exact or improved and
> enhanced blueprint of my former body including a one to one copy of my
> consciousness - if I?m lucky?
To make backups of you requires *at least* a complete scan of your brain,
the ability to store this and create an equivalent system, which means
technology on the uploading level. I think most people just think of the
backup as an information archive which can be downloaded into a prepared
robot body which immediately starts to run your mind emulation; it could also
be a more detailled body blueprint for recreating the entire body. This body
could of course be anything from a nanoreplica of your original fleshbody
(assuming that is your original) to something entirely artificial.
> > The copies could be stored in secret stealthed Kuiper belt objects
> > with minimal energy requirements as long as they are not active.
>
> But how do they get back to earth? No matter what they are, software,
> carbon-based flesh or a software-robody-combination...someone other than
> me must use his hands to get them back on our planet or at least: someone
> other than me must simply put my - let`s use contemporaray terms - blue
> DVD-backup into the hard drive of a robody.
Why not just simple non-sentient software? Your exoself could be a script
like:
Sleep 24 hours
Check mailbox
If message from original present then
if authentic sleep message then
Restart
Activate stored copy
(It can be elaborated in fun ways to deal with forged messages, levels of
alert, emergencies etc)
If you trust the hardware and software to store the backup and revive it,
then the rest is no problem. If you can't trust the components, then you will
only be happy once you have built *everything* from scratch (including your
get-back-to-earth spacecraft).
> why I was wondering if all our fine ideas about living forever must
> finally rely on this little manual help from a friend or a paid
> institution. And if there actually is no way to do it ALL by yourself.
I think Robin Hanson made a good point in his "Dreams of Autarchy" paper,
where he pointed out that the ideas of being *totally* independent that
often circulate on this list are rather impractical. You can achieve far
more by cooperating with other people, and there are existing methods of
getting even selfish people to respect contracts and other useful tools to
get what you want. Division of labor means that you won't have to do
everything by yourself (including mining ores, writing compilers and
desigining air ducts) and you can spend more time on what you enjoy or are
good at. But it comes at the cost of having to rely on other people.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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