I think we've strayed from the original debate, into philosophical questions on the nature of conciousness (which I'm fine with and enjoy) into questioning the actual practicalities of imprinting a mind onto a computer system and messing with said mind in order to do so. What we're talking about here are the limitations to technology which is so far out of our current reach that there is no way we could possibly know how it would be used or if its even possible in any form. There's not much point to discussing the limitations of imprinting a mind onto a theoretical computer system, using a theoretical method (and not even a fleshed out theory).
If you haven't noticed, we are actually talking about stuff I have already been doing for a while.
Also, technology is further along than most people think, there already exists stuff like antimatter drives, AI capable of producing original science, tuchable holograms, hiveminds, etc. it's just that they are less comon and less flashy than the stuff you see on startreck. I have found personality capture softwere dating from 10 years ago. (thou, it was based on some outdated physycological theories and thus mostly usless, but still.)
Also, if you really want to try and code your mind into a computer and feel that you have to train it to do so, why don't you just code a trained version of your mind, instead of trying to slice away sections of your psyche?
I'll do that to, to an extent. The culling dosn't actualy delete the information (emediatly), merly supress it. The reason it cant simply be done during the coding is that it is realy imposible to do in one fell swoop, and that you need to bugtest it by disabling it in the original to make sure it doesn't turn out to be more significant then you originaly thought.
"Transferring the mind" by transferring memory would just create another you, but it won't be YOU you. If you tried that, for example, your original consciousness would be annihilated, while creating a new one in a new mind. It'll be an Armok, but not the instance of Armok that posted the post I'm replying to. That one will be dead.
That's no different from your brain cells changing in configuration, or every particle in your body being replaced. The idea that your mind has some essence that will not be preserved by recreating your brain in every detail is...well, it's essentialism. But there is no essence. Your brain is constantly changing anyway; the you of now will be dead five minutes from now, not to mention five years, and will be annihilated in just the same sense that "you" would be if you "transferred" your mind.
You got it! It is incidentaly also why I cant wait for mainstream stuff to be invented; my body might be around in 30 years when that happens, but I certanly wont be. This is another reason to do the culling stuff even if you dont think it gives imortality; it halts personality drift and thus at least make you survive longer.
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Topic: Is Death the End? - Bay 12's Musings of the Afterlife (Read 32149 times)