From: Chris Hind (chind@juno.com)
Date: Fri Nov 01 1996 - 13:51:26 MST
> >this would not be *your* consciousness that was uploaded.
> >What was uploaded was your memories, thoughts, etc.
>
>I see where our fundamental disagreement is. You say we have memories,
>thoughts and feelings; I say we ARE memories, thoughts and feelings. You say
>we are an object, a noun. I say we are an adjective, we are the way matter
>reacts when it is organized in certain ways. True, matter is needed for us to
>exist, but that's not the important part because any matter will do, good
>thing too, the matter in your body is quite different than it was a year
ago.
>The important thing is the way the matter is organized, the information.
Take a look at dreams! In a dream state, you can lower your access level to
information in your brain such as the concept of being in a house in a
dream and your brain 'knows' whats in the room you're about to enter but
you yourself do not which provides evidence for memory and consciousness
being two seporate functions.
>You can't move the information from Floppy Disk A to Floppy Disk B
>without making a copy. It isn't possible.
But you can take the magnetic media on the inside of the floppy casing and
move it physically to the inside of another floppy case.
>Even if we were able to understand how
>intelligence operates, is it possible to "reorganize" or extend the
>architechture of the brain without causing changes in consciousness?
>It may be my own limitations, but I can't help but think that
>although our intelligence could be extended fairly easily, our
>consciousness is irremovably tied to the overall structure of our
>brain.
This is why incrememtal gradual uploading is required so that you 'grow'
into your new brain by writing new data into it. You would be required to
be functioning normally while the uploading is occurring so that you
maintain your consciousness through the trip. Static uploads cause clones.
After the upload is entirely complete you could shut down the manual
sensory input and kick back in VR paradise.
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