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[scriver]

Our minds are not kept in the flesh, our minds are the flesh. To upload a mind into a computer the computer would have to be made out of flesh, flesh identical to yours.

[Teneb]

Our minds are not kept in the flesh, our minds are the flesh. To upload a mind into a computer the computer would have to be made out of flesh, flesh identical to yours.

Our brains are just exceptionally efficient meat computers.

[scriver]

Our minds are not kept in the flesh, our minds are the flesh. To upload a mind into a computer the computer would have to be made out of flesh, flesh identical to yours.

Our brains are just exceptionally efficient meat computers.

Well, the difference is that with computers, you have hardware, and you have software which run on the hardware. With minds you have fleshware, and the "software" is the same as the "hardware", it's all flesh.

[Bralbaard]

There are many differences between computers and brains. For one thing many of the decisions you make and how you feel are influenced by hormones, and all kinds of chemistry related to the current state of your body and its needs. You can not expect to upload some data from your brain into a computer and expect the result to have your personality.
I don't see a reason either to immediately terminate the human subject after a copy has been made either. Might be worthwile to compare the two for a while to see how bad a job was done on the uploaded copy. Terminating the human at a later date however will likely raise additional questions on ethics.

Anyhow, the demise of the human race by an AI uprising does not appear to be a problem specific to European politics.
On that subject I can only say that this whole mess with Trump is at least making the EU seem relevant.
For most people in Europe the EU has always been this distant body that nobody really cared about, and if they did it was only to complain. It actually looks like we'll need it in the future.

[Reelya]

Though you might be right, just saying "influenced by hormones" or similar isn't really a good argument against being able to simulate a system. That particular argument is no more valid than saying you can't model the trajectory of a golf ball, because golf balls are "influenced by the wind". Just model the goddamn wind as well then. The flow of hormones throughout the bloodstream is in fact much  easier to model than a neural network, so if you're modeling a human brain already, then adding in correct modeling for hormones is the least of your problems.

Any material system can be formulated as a series of equations, going down to modelling the quantum mechanics if needed. So in principle you just model the atoms themselves, and that includes modelling blood vessels, hormones, oxygen etc. It's do-able. The ability to model things at the atomic level is proof of concept that it can be done at all, but in practice it's massive overkill, since you can always find details that can be abstracted away / assumed.

[Bralbaard]

I was trying to say that moddeling the brain is far, far more complicated than just mapping the neurons. Neurons are living things that have rna synthesis, proteïns etc influencing stuff.
You are right that we can model stuff up to a certain point. To move this back to European politics, we could probably build a model that up to a certain accuracy simulates Theresa May, and predict what decisions she will take. It may actually end up being quite accurate for an outside observer, but that Theresa may model would not experience the world in a similar way as the Theresa may that we currently have. I would be quite hesitant to release it upon the world.

[TD1]

One TM PM is more than enough.

[Bralbaard]

Why? Once we have the first TM-PM build we could easily produce thousands. We could even tweak the settings so that it expresses her defining characteristics more clearly!

[ChairmanPoo]

Why? Once we have the first TM-PM build we could easily produce thousands. We could even tweak the settings so that it expresses her defining characteristics more clearly!

We shall abolish the orgasm.  Boris Johnson's photographer is at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards tautologies. There will be no love, except the love of cake and chlorinated chicken. There will be no laughter, except the laugh over Benny Hill reruns. There will be no art, no literature, no science. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always — do not forget this, Bralbraad — always there will be the intoxication of shitposting, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. If you want a picture of Potato Brexit, imagine two trolls and their sockpuppets trolling each other on an internet forum — forever.

[Loud Whispers]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6831580/boris-johnson-to-remain-in-his-20million-taxpayer-funded-mansion-for-weeks-despite-resigning-as-foreign-secretary/
In Bojo news, Bojo staying in the mansion you apparently get if you become foreign secretary

Despite having his own house which he's renting

Despite not even being foreign secretary anymore

I get that this is standard politician practice but the fact that it's not even extraordinary makes things even more depressing

[Rowanas]

Dear sweet baby jesus. While The Sun isn't exactly a reliable source, it also doesn't seem entirely out of place for this to be a real thing.

We have grown docile and manageable. Even though we've never won a fight on home soil, the British desperately need to try.  How do we learn to rekindle our fury against the corrupt and greedy?

[TD1]

I believe we already did that. Its results are most often called "Brexit."

[hector13]

I see what you did there.

I also don’t see the difference between the EU political class and the British political class.

[TD1]

The British political class are more behoven to us and need to appear to care about us more than the EU ones do. Other than that, not a huge difference.

[hector13]

Only if you live in England, though.