On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 11:58 PM, Piaget Modeler via AGI <[email protected]> wrote: > > Ummm.... sorry, but if you go to sleep on an operating table, then > they slice up your brain... you won't wake up. A copy of you might > continue in a machine or online, but YOU certainly won't. That is > my current understanding. Kindly advise if I'm incorrect here.
Whether or not the machine is "you" is a meaningless question. The technical problem is to make the copy accurate enough to convince other people that it is you. It requires solving AGI and it requires collecting a lot of information about you, whether by observation, by interviews with you and people that know you, by brain scanning, or by some combination of these. A company has to solve these problems if it is going to be successful in selling its uploading service. Judging from some of the comments, it's going to be a hard sell. But I understand the question seems important. All animals have a survival instinct. Humans are social animals, so we don't like to see others die either. You might not believe that your soul will survive in silicon, but there may be other customers who don't want you to see you die either. A survival instinct is complex and highly evolved. Nearly all forms of death are painful, horrible, and frightening. But even though we have the technology to make death painless, you still don't want to permanently lose your consciousness, free will, and identity. Of course you know logically that these things are illusions. Our sense of consciousness comes from the emotions (mostly positive) associated with sensory perceptions and thoughts as they are written into episodic memory. Likewise, our sense of free will comes from the mostly positive emotions associated with actions. But you understand, of course, that the brain is just doing a computation. I don't think you would be on this list if you didn't think that a computer couldn't in principle do what the brain does. Your senses of consciousness and free will are part of your survival instinct. You don't want them to end by dying. You imagine being dead is like being in a sensory deprivation tank and unable to move. Of course it is not, because experiencing this requires brain activity. It is more like what it was like before you were born. It is not possible to experience the lack of experience. You can only experience being alive. Likewise, identity is an illusion. You can no more give a logically consistent definition of it than you can define consciousness and free will. You think you know what these things are, but the best you can do is test for the belief in them. Logic tells you they don't exist, but your feelings tell you they do. You believe your feelings. Logically, you are the set of memories and behaviors that distinguish you from everyone else. But even when we have the technology to preserve them, you object. I understand. I would too. Our brains are programmed to maximize reproductive fitness. -- -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
