From: John K Clark (johnkc@well.com)
Date: Mon Sep 08 1997 - 08:56:44 MDT
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Now that the blizzard has abated I would like to suggest a new type of goo,
Adrian Karth goo. Oh well, at least now we know the list can handle high
volume.
"den Otter" <otter@globalxs.nl> On Sat, 6 Sep 1997 Wrote:
>If you don't care about dying, why even bother with uploading at all?
I think it's important to ask yourself exactly what is bad about death,
personally I don't like death because it doesn't seem like much fun, it
doesn't seem like much of anything. Remember those old Twilight Zones when at
the end the hero is horrified to discover that he's really dead, even as a
kid I never understood that. The thing I don't like about death is oblivion,
but this fellow was still discovering things and is experiencing things.
I'd be astounded and delighted to discover I was dead, because that would
mean death wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
>you "know" you exist here and now, and that your memories are real
>and your own.
That is my working hypothesis but I don't "know" it to be true, and if I'm
wrong so what. It didn't bother me yesterday, why should it bother me
tomorrow?
>Why take this enormous risk with direct uploading when you can do
>the whole process gradually and without ever losing your consciousness
Well, it's possible that fast uploading will destroy my consciousness while
doing it slowly will preserve it. It's also possible that slow uploading will
destroy my consciousness while doing it quickly preserve it. Both have equal
probability of being correct, about the same chance as me being the only
conscious being in the universe.
On Sat, 06 Sep 1997 Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com (Dan Clemmensen) Wrote:
>We can end up wasting time on questions that can be demonstrated to
>be unanswerable.
But some questions are worth asking and can even be answered, such as:
If I think I'm conscious, am I?
Yes.
Is it possible that I don't think, I just think I think?
No.
If I think I've survived, have I?
Yes.
>Such questions are IMO content-free
I disagree because they have a practical side, a baring on your future
actions.
YakWaxx@aol.com On Sat, 6 Sep 1997 Wrote:
>Let's say every time your mind changes, you've died,
Then I've already died at least a thousand times today alone and it didn't
bother me one bit. I expect I'll die a thousand times tomorrow too and see no
reason that should be any more unpleasant.
>So if your consciousness only exists as a memory, it's important to
>keep those memories consistent.
I agree.
>Gradual uploading should do this. But trashing your brain and
>rebuilding it to the highest level of detail my not be consistent,
>and one little glitch in logic and you're gone.
I grant you that there might be practical advantages in uploading slowly,
at least at first until the bugs are worked out, but I maintain there is no
philosophical advantage.
>if you rebuild your mind in exact detail, you've sort of missed the
>point, since it will be slower than its real world counterpart.
Slower? The software is the same and the hardware is a billion times faster,
why would things be slower?
>The new "you" (the uploaded duplicate) will probably think the same,
>but that doesn't change the fact that he/she/it is almost certainly
>a fake
So just what is it that the "original" (whatever that means) has that the
"fake" does not, a soul?
John K Clark johnkc@well.com
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.i
iQCzAgUBNBQNwX03wfSpid95AQHSDQTvfYjZ86arh/5cyID8e8RggqTzAO+e0Oxn
eEq/+ON7nLAmx9BQfm8nTUI5MOX9z7WYlaBl+LBilWgMlWrJj/95Jl8bf/qStsfv
TWUFIV6hSPkcJbbjFAcjmE+h2qeL/GLBbppO+cHYZ1WlD38hbQgDtEKq1tGWQIBZ
FyLb/E2Q/tEHRemOcIuBpQgH3JW0cmIdyuJl4E7uanYi80oh0dU=
=cNvb
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:51 MST