RE: Is it possible to upload our minds into a computer or in engineered living tissue?
October 16, 2015 at 1:07 am
(This post was last modified: October 16, 2015 at 1:16 am by Reforged.
Edit Reason: quotation marks are important
)
Me and my Dad used to have this conversation alot. Hes always had this fantasy of immortality by having his consciousness uploaded to a really advanced computer. Ultimately it always ended like this;
"Right so, you die but someone uploads a copy of your mind to a computer. It acts like you. Is it you?"
"Yes."
"Ok, turns out there was a mistake. You're not dead. Is it still you?"
"Yes, we're both me."
"Nope. One of you is the original, the other simply has the same set memories. It may be living in the sense that it has consciousness but you are two completely different individuals. One just happens to be a replica of the other. You're similar but your paths diverge at the point the copy is created. *You* are your brain, he is whatever equivalent of a brain he happens to have. The information on that is just that, information. When your brain dies so will you."
Eventually he would concede the point begrudgingly then suddenly have to do something.
The only way to actually achieve real immortality in a sense we would recognize would be to make it so brain death was impossible. However, the point could be made that since we replace most of our bodies cells over a seven year period we actually die multiple times before we classify ourselves as being officially dead. We are replaced by exact copies multiple times in our "lifetimes" yet we do not acknowledge the fact in our day to day lives. The person I am now is literally not the person who was known as me seven years ago, he is very dead. I simply have his memories.
"Right so, you die but someone uploads a copy of your mind to a computer. It acts like you. Is it you?"
"Yes."
"Ok, turns out there was a mistake. You're not dead. Is it still you?"
"Yes, we're both me."
"Nope. One of you is the original, the other simply has the same set memories. It may be living in the sense that it has consciousness but you are two completely different individuals. One just happens to be a replica of the other. You're similar but your paths diverge at the point the copy is created. *You* are your brain, he is whatever equivalent of a brain he happens to have. The information on that is just that, information. When your brain dies so will you."
Eventually he would concede the point begrudgingly then suddenly have to do something.
The only way to actually achieve real immortality in a sense we would recognize would be to make it so brain death was impossible. However, the point could be made that since we replace most of our bodies cells over a seven year period we actually die multiple times before we classify ourselves as being officially dead. We are replaced by exact copies multiple times in our "lifetimes" yet we do not acknowledge the fact in our day to day lives. The person I am now is literally not the person who was known as me seven years ago, he is very dead. I simply have his memories.
"That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange aeons even death may die."
- Abdul Alhazred.
- Abdul Alhazred.
