From: Clint O'Dell (clintodell@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Oct 24 1999 - 16:14:25 MDT
phil osborn wrote:
>This whole discussion is a good example of how ignorant even most
>extropians are re the actual nature of consciousness, unfortunately.
Actualy, how ignorant you are in this area.
>Consciousness builds itself from successful feedback, as in thumb against
>forefinger in the womb.
Problem solving memories builds from feedback of successfull projects.
Society of Mind does a great job explaining this.
Consciousness becomes more suffisticated as more problem solving memories
become more abundant and suffisticated.
>Consciousness is not and cannot be a program or any set of symbolic
>manipulations separate from sensory data - and action.
Consciousness is memory stimulation and memories being passed around in the
brain.
Memories are accessed by outside stimulation notifying parts of the brain
responsible for acting on stimulation, who then notify each other and plan
what to do from a complicated logic gate based on the number of connections
to each part of the brain. This logic gate is the programming. Let's
program a bird. Play a low tone everytime you want the bird to turn left
and when the bird starts to turn left drop some food. Continualy delay the
time you drop food until the bird turns all the way around. Do the same
thing for a high tone to turn right. Next put some earphones on it with a
message tied to its foot and you have a remote controlled bird. Now make a
remote controlled dog, that'll be fun. How about a human? Cool.
>Fortunately, as Bart Kosko pointed out today on the "Digital Village," it
>may not matter, as the process of uploading, and also, very possibly,
>producing the next generation of SI's, can just as likely happen
>incrementally.
What do you mean incrementally?
Do you mean to first replace the eyes, followed by the ears, next breathing,
etc..., until you reach the frontal lobe where you'll get stuck because by
then you'll have found out you really didn't have a clue how it worked?
That's how I discovered uploading was possible, and as someone who searched
for a way to be physicaly immortal since age 10, after discovering it (age
18) I set to work figuring that last part out. And figured out that complex
information interchange was only feasable by software because wire doesn't
grow and making it do so was to complex and would require to much thinking
time in order to apply it within my life time. So my point is, yea, you can
work toward replacing the hardware of consciousness with another piece of
hardware, but by the time that's done we'll all be dead. I eventualy plan to
sign up for cryonics, but I have very little faith in it.
>The Boomers will be demanding medical solutions to failing organs,
>including brain, retina, etc. The solutions already in the works at places
>like UCI involve creating chip replacements/enhancements on a piecemeal
>basis.
These replacements you mention memic the original functions. That's easy.
Too easy. But, consciousness is not just one part of the brain, and it acts
differently than the parts currently being replaced. There will come a time
when you have to pass along memories and allow them to change and interact.
I doubt memories are stored in little boxes as taught in school. It looks
to me as memories are patterned interactions.
>Thus, the transition to upload may never involve attempting to move
>consciousness in toto onto another platform from meatware.
It'll happen anyways. There are things you can do in virtual reality you
can't do in reality. Just don't unplug me. <s>
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