Is it possible to upload our minds into a computer or in engineered living tissue?

[Whateverist]

There is a recent thread on this topic:

Let's create an eternal blissful life through science

I don't think it will ever be possible, for reasons specified in that thread.  Nor do I think it would be desirable even if it were possible.  For reasons specified in that thread.

Yeah, I wondered if anyone might already have started a thread inspired by the article but was too lazy to check. I pretty much agree with you that it isn't likely possible at all. Your position there:

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First, why I think it is not possible.

Your mind is some processes in your brain, or the result of some processes in your brain. Your brain cannot be kept going forever, so there is zero chance of eternal life. It may be possible to extend human life dramatically, but it cannot be made to last forever.

As for resurrecting people, once the brain deteriorates, there is no way to make it how it was before, as how it was before is not known. If one had a magical scanner that could scan the exact state of every minute particle of a brain, and if one had a magical machine that could exactly arrange such a collection of particles, then it would be possible to recreate a brain at the moment of the scan. (Of course, such a recreation would be a copy of the brain, not the original brain, so it still would not be the original person.) But if no scan had been made of someone, then one would have no way of knowing how all of the particles should be arranged, and so even a magical machine that could arrange particles perfectly would not be enough to resurrect someone.

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But this article inspired me to move on from that position to explore what questions that arise if in fact it were possible to transfer the exact mechanics of a particular brain to either a computer or a cultured biological medium. The author, I take it, is an expert in mapping the activity of the brain to the extent that is possible to do now. Yet he seems to have a sensible outlook on the desirability of the endeavor. So, fine, I'll set aside considerations of the difficulties (since he seems to acknowledge these are far from trivial).

Also, our brains may already be transferred to new media even now. Most brain cells are not replaced, but those in the hippocampus are and that is the area most responsible for memory*. So if we already rewrite memories from the original cells which stored them to new ones, then in principle there may in fact be a mechanism for doing so beyond the lifespan of the individual and that of his neurons. (Admittedly, I don't know whether long term memory relies on transference to new cells or if the life long generation of neurons in the hippocampus merely permits more memories.)

*

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Most cells in our bodies’ organs and tissues, such as the liver, guts, or skin are continuously renewed. In contrast, the majority of the approximately 100 billion nerve cells in our brain and spinal cord are born — through a process known as neurogenesis — before birth and will last a lifetime. However, a few brain structures add new nerve cells during infancy and a single region adds new cells throughout the lifespan.

Shortly after birth in humans, a substantial number of new nerve cells are produced and added to brain regions called the cerebellum, olfactory bulb, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. But by age 2, neurogenesis in most of these regions disappears except in the hippocampus — a region involved in learning and memory. This may be the only location in the brain where new cells are added throughout one’s lifetime.

http://www.brainfacts.org/about-neurosci...w-new-ones

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Be that as it may, I'm now willing to concede that it may eventually be possible in principle to create new vessels for the brain states which account for all of our experiences. But you of course are welcome to go on fighting the good fight. But I'm moving my fight a little further down the road to "so what if it is?"