
The Era of Humans – Ending Soon - gingerlime
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/114754934816/the-era-of-humans-ending-soon
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gingerlime
I wonder though, even if you could 'transfer' your brain to software, there
would be a 'switch', where you'll get rid of your body in the process. Then
the (software) copy will start being you.

Then when you die / kill the physical self - the _you_ you dies. The one you
are now.

Would it actually make a difference to know that there's another you out there
that didn't die? It's just a comforting feeling that you're not really gone,
and that your mind keeps "living". I'm just not sure if it's much more
comforting than believing in reincarnation or that your soul goes to heaven in
my opinion.

~~~
detritus
This is just it though, isn't it?

Sort of like Transporter technology in Star Trek, wherein everyone ignores the
elephant in the room - all their friends died years ago, many times.

Sure, they've a technology which creates perfect facsimiles after de-
materialisation, but the Spock you knew and loved (or, at least, tolerated),
and were just speaking to on-board a few moments ago, died, along with you,
when you beamed down to the planet's surface.

Much like normal neuronal biological growth, we'll need for the process to be
as subtle and time-spanning as we can, presumably matching neuronal growth
rates, so that we don't notice that we've killed ourselves in the process.

------
gyim
"If you always knew the wise thing to do, would you ever choose the unwise
path?"

Yes, people do that. When someone cheats on his/her spouse, is it because it
seems to be the wise path? No, it's quite likely that such a person knows that
it is wrong, unethical, and also very unwise - and still do it. And we all do
this in smaller things all the time: e.g. exercising our ego and being rude to
each other when we know that it will only make things worse; eating a lot of
junk food when we know that it will make us unhealthy - and so on.

People are not just rational minds: we also have instincts and emotions. Free
will is not about finding the solution to a logical problem: it is about
balancing between these things.

Just think about how you could define an algorithm for solving an ethical
dilemma. What is your algorithm? What is Mother Theresa's algorithm? What
would happen if everybody had the same (supposedly ideal) algorithm, and would
kill / self-sacrifice in the same kinds of situations? Would we survive at
all?

If transferring our minds to software would be possible, would we want to
transfer our emotions or instincts to this software at all? Would we really
want to live as robots, or would we want to keep something "human" too?

------
detritus
Strange, I consider myself somewhat 'up-to-date on technology' and think we're
further away from full consciousness transference to hardware than I've ever
thought before.

The more I learn about how complex and how.. dense.. the brain is, the more
decades I add onto that singular point where I think I might be able to escape
my meat vessel.

Sadly!

\- ed

not that I don't necessarily think computer complexity might reach parity with
the human mind in my lifetime, more it being the not so trivial matter of
creating whatever transference mechanic is tasked with copying a human mind
over at the multi-connected neuron level.

------
jqm
It may be possible to duplicate a humans thought patterns in silicon, but I'm
not sure this will cause self awareness.

Self awareness hasn't yet been satisfactorily explained to me in terms of
brain patterns... I'm not religious, nor superstitious, so I assume self
awareness must rely on physical phenomenon, but what causes it as far as I
know remains a mystery. Maybe a copy becomes conscious. That would be cool.
But I'm skeptical it's going to be that easy.

