From: Henri Kluytmans (hkl@stack.nl)
Date: Sun Apr 26 1998 - 11:03:21 MDT
Anders Sandberg wrote:
> >First, some of the entities might suffer a gradual decline (like
> >humans with Alzheimer's disease), would it be nice to save backup
> >copies of their final, degraded state or should one save copies
> >from an earlier state? If so, why just one, why not several?
I wrote:
> When the creator has enough power to simulate a universe, he must
> also have enough power to merge the backup copies of earlier states
> with the later backups of the degraded states, and to construct
> from those multiple states a "healthy" state, containing all memories
> of the being. Of course one has to define what a "healthy" state is
> first.
Warrl kyree Tale'sedrin wrote:
>One also has to contend with the fact that a certain individual in
>this "healthy" state will simultaneously remember:
>
> * the semi-trailer truck bearing down on him as he lays helpless;
<snip>
> * and several other interesting, mutually contradictory life
>experiences.
>
>If you would describe someone trying to reconcile all these different
>memories -- all of which are true -- as "healthy", then you have a
>much different definition of that term than I do.
Yes, a bad choice of words from me. I couldn't find a more fitting
term quickly enough. Actually that was the reason I put the word
"healthy" between quotes. (I surely didn't mean "mental healthy"
but at most "biological healthy")
I was using this word with respect to the damage to the mental systems
of a sentient being resulting from physical degradation prior to
its death. I could have used the word "complete", but not only all
its memories would have to be restored, but also other mental
systems that perform certain functions (like communication centers,
sensory input processing centers, etc...) Because I was also thinking
about these latter parts of the mental system I think I used the
word "healthy". (But you can see that I was already having doubts
about this choice of words because I said the word "healthy" should
be exactly defined first.)
Perhaps more correct would be :
"to reconstruct a normally functioning and completely memory intact
mental system for the resurrected sentient being"
=======================================================================>
>Hkl ------> Technology & Future at http://www.stack.nl/~hkl
Transcedo --> Dutch Transhumanist Society http://www.dse.nl/~transced
Because the future is where we will spend the rest of our lives ...
You see things and ask "Why?" ; I dream things and ask "Why not?"
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