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Artificial Intelligence and Life Beyond Death

Dave Rogers said:
Substituting "may be" for "are", and that's precisely what science fiction is about. And we don't, in fact, know for certain that it's physically possible to transfer human consciousness to anything other than the specific body in which it arises.

Dave
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Sure, but I wasn't claiming that transferring consciousness was possible, only copying the system (which we do know would result in a copy that had the same properties). A lot of discussion in this thread has been about whether or not that would actually equate to a transfer of consciousness, and in general my view is that it wouldn't.

I don't think there's anything less scientific about discussing uploading than say potential battery technologies, next generation nuclear reactors, what the most likely avenue to nuclear fusion is, or colonizing Mars. Some of those are more or less well understood, but I think each of those topics (and this one) are entirely suitable to this subsection of the forum and certainly aren't supernatural in nature.
 
dann said:
The imaginary mental patient cloned from Napoleon is an imaginary Napoleon clone.
The imaginary mental patient, whose memories were copied from Napoleon is an imaginary humanoid dreaming of being Napoleon - and maybe also of electric sheep.
The imaginary mental patient, who was cloned from Napoleon, and whose memories were copied from Napoleon, is also made up and doesn't exist beyond the realm of imagination.
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You're missing the point.

The point of the hypothetical is to consider how we might respond to the situation if it were real. Rather than rejecting the hypothetical, please consider responding to it in the spirit in which it was offered.
 
Roboramma said:
Sure, but I wasn't claiming that transferring consciousness was possible, only copying the system (which we do know would result in a copy that had the same properties). A lot of discussion in this thread has been about whether or not that would actually equate to a transfer of consciousness, and in general my view is that it wouldn't.

I don't think there's anything less scientific about discussing uploading than say potential battery technologies, next generation nuclear reactors, what the most likely avenue to nuclear fusion is, or colonizing Mars. Some of those are more or less well understood, but I think each of those topics (and this one) are entirely suitable to this subsection of the forum and certainly aren't supernatural in nature.
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+1

With the proviso that I wouldn't dismiss the possibility of transferring consciousness, given we don't really know how conscientious comes into being, or even the mechanics of how it works.
 
Am interested to know the thoughts of others regarding the obsession with wanting to survive death that seems such a strong force in us. This is after all the big trump card that Christianity holds, with its "historical" record of Jesus surviving death.

As I mentioned in post #131 the you that survives death today will become a different you in time (especially in a different receptacle) as you were different some time ago.

Given this (as I think) undeniable fact, why should we be so strongly attracted to the idea of surviving death?

As we well know there are numbers of frozen brains, heads, and whole bodies in freezers. The previous owners of these frozen relics were obviously strongly motivated, and I think if the technology is developed to transfer conscientiousness, there will be no shortage of customers.
 
Thor 2 said:
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As I mentioned in post #131 the you that survives death today will become a different you in time (especially in a different receptacle) as you were different some time ago.

Given this (as I think) undeniable fact, why should we be so strongly attracted to the idea of surviving death?

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the same can be said about growing up: you are not the same person you were when you were young.
Our sense of continuity is an illusion.
An illusion we can probably extend to an upload.
 
The Great Zaganza said:
the same can be said about growing up: you are not the same person you were when you were young.
Our sense of continuity is an illusion.
An illusion we can probably extend to an upload.
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I said the same thing in post #131.

Why do we have such a hang up about surviving death then?

My dear old mother thought the idea of everlasting life frightening. Perhaps insanity may result from contemplating the idea. The idea of knowing with absolute certainty that your existence will never end. Heck, it drives me nuts just to think of infinity of distance.
 
Thor 2 said:
I said the same thing in post #131.

Why do we have such a hang up about surviving death then?

My dear old mother thought the idea of everlasting life frightening. Perhaps insanity may result from contemplating the idea. The idea of knowing with absolute certainty that your existence will never end. Heck, it drives me nuts just to think of infinity of distance.
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You can kill yourself any time. Where's the issue ?
 
Dr.Sid said:
You can kill yourself any time. Where's the issue ?
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But those damn bastards could take your warm dead body and put it inside that machine and make a new you right away. Less than an hour after you kill yourself they've got you walking and talking again.
 
Dr.Sid said:
You can kill yourself any time. Where's the issue ?
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What if you can't kill yourself? Uploading seems like a potential situation where killing yourself may not be easy, given that you may not have physical access to the hardware of your consciousness.
 
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Dr.Sid said:
You can kill yourself any time. Where's the issue ?
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Well if you are still contained in a physical receptacle, it would always be possible to terminate I suppose, and the total life expectancy would be finite anyway, as the planet, or the universe comes to an end.

Religion is offering the infinite or everlasting to an indestructible soul.
 
Something I would like to tease out discussion of, is the deterioration of the essence of a person due to mental illness, or physical trauma. If any here have opinions about this I would like to hear them. Is it a legitimate description to speak of the essence of a person?

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I think the religious would or should ponder this issue. As they watch the elderly loved one slowly lose their mind, do they cling to a belief that the eternal soul is still there unblemished?
 
Ignoring the fly spot of Cris above, it has occurred to me that the possibility of downloading the essence of one person into another, or a computer, may open an avenue for virtual space travel.

Imagine being able to project a conscious entity, at the speed of light, to another being or computer, at a far distant location.
 
Thor 2 said:
Ignoring the fly spot of Cris above, it has occurred to me that the possibility of downloading the essence of one person into another, or a computer, may open an avenue for virtual space travel.



Imagine being able to project a conscious entity, at the speed of light, to another being or computer, at a far distant location.
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Lots of good science fiction stories have taken that as a premise.
 
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