Let's create an eternal blissful life through science

[robvalue]

Already? Blimey.

I was going to say that ressurecting people who haven't given explicit desire to ever be resurrected is, in my opinion, morally suspect. I wouldn't be comfortable with such a project.

[vorlon13]

Burning them up with an atomic bomb isn't on the table any more ??

[Pyrrho]

Right now it's impossible, in future however, something similar might be possible. Our brain is pretty much a biological harddisk where all our data resides, and experiments are already on their way on how to read and retrieve that data. So I don't think it's too implausible to imagine a future where we can keep ourselves backed-up on physical mediums and restore that to a new body when needed. So resurrection could be possible in a way.

Two things.  First, I don't see any reason to believe that one is simply one's data, or that one is a biological hard disk.  It seems to me that one is the machine.  You are not just the particular thoughts you have; you are also the way you think about those thoughts.

Second, even if I were wrong about the first point, the data extraction is going to be practically impossible, which Vorlon13 explains well enough in an earlier post.

So I am confident that it will never be possible.

[Aoi Magi]

Right now it's impossible, in future however, something similar might be possible. Our brain is pretty much a biological harddisk where all our data resides, and experiments are already on their way on how to read and retrieve that data. So I don't think it's too implausible to imagine a future where we can keep ourselves backed-up on physical mediums and restore that to a new body when needed. So resurrection could be possible in a way.

Two things.  First, I don't see any reason to believe that one is simply one's data, or that one is a biological hard disk.  It seems to me that one is the machine.  You are not just the particular thoughts you have; you are also the way you think about those thoughts.

Second, even if I were wrong about the first point, the data extraction is going to be practically impossible, which Vorlon13 explains well enough in an earlier post.

So I am confident that it will never be possible.

Hmm, I cannot agree or disagree on that first point. But I will give that we are not just data, but the algorithm that processes that data and gathers further data is important too.

On the second point, I don't understand why we would need so much energy. Think of making a backup of your harddisk, you are not monitoring every molecule in your hdd in order to copy the data, are you? Our brain is already capable of working on all the data it stores and send messages via nerves, so maybe we can use the brain itself to process the data/memories and send it to a medium as signals we can intercept and store?

[Pyrrho]

Two things.  First, I don't see any reason to believe that one is simply one's data, or that one is a biological hard disk.  It seems to me that one is the machine.  You are not just the particular thoughts you have; you are also the way you think about those thoughts.

Second, even if I were wrong about the first point, the data extraction is going to be practically impossible, which Vorlon13 explains well enough in an earlier post.

So I am confident that it will never be possible.

Hmm, I cannot agree or disagree on that first point. But I will give that we are not just data, but the algorithm that processes that data and gathers further data is important too.

On the second point, I don't understand why we would need so much energy. Think of making a backup of your harddisk, you are not monitoring every molecule in your hdd in order to copy the data, are you? Our brain is already capable of working on all the data it stores and send messages via nerves, so maybe we can use the brain itself to process the data/memories and send it to a medium as signals we can intercept and store?

Although one might imagine a brain following an algorithm, the brain is not an algorithm.  Additionally, the processes are affected by what you eat and drink, how much sleep you are getting, etc.  For an obvious example, if you drink half a bottle of scotch, you will find that your brain processes are quite different from what your brain processes are when you have not had any alcohol.  If whatever copy of your brain is made does not have that characteristic, then it isn't you, nor is it even a good copy of you.  The way you interact with your environment is a part of you.


In order to fully describe how the brain works, one needs to know all of the details of every tiny piece of it.  However, since you are only part of your brain's processes, it might be that some of them are not important.  But that is yet to be determined, and if one screws up and leaves off some process that is important, then, again, the result isn't you.

I might further add that if one were able to make a perfect copy of someone, one would never be able to prove that it was a perfect copy of someone.  That further makes the idea of a perfect copy implausible, as how could one get it exactly right if one cannot tell if the thing one has made has created a perfect copy or not?  When making the device in the first place, how will one know how to make it correctly, if one cannot properly test it to make sure it is working properly?

In order to know that all of the functions were precisely the same, one would need to know about all of the minute particles of the brain, to be sure that there was nothing of importance that is left off.  Which takes us back to Vorlon13's point.

After all, everything that is a part of the process of whether a relevant neuron fires or not is a part of what you are, and a part of what makes you you and not something else.

[robvalue]

I really don't want an eternal anything.

I'm stating that very clearly right now! Once I'm done and dusted, I don't want to be undusted. And I don't want some technology stuck up my arse which makes me live forever either. No way.

[vorlon13]

I really don't want an eternal anything.

I'm stating that very clearly right now! Once I'm done and dusted, I don't want to be undusted. And I don't want some technology stuck up my arse which makes me live forever either. No way.

How about something up your arse that just really makes your day ??

[Longhorn]

And when he says 'your' day, he means his....

[vorlon13]