X-Message-Number: 32297
References: <>
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 14:25:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Luke Parrish <>
Subject: Re: Uploading and Survival

> From: 


> Even if uploading would not constitute survival, it's nevertheless a 
> constructive consolation in case of death.

My opinion exactly. Just as having children that share your memes as well as
genes is consoling for many individuals, a "genetically" similar upload would

grant a good deal of consolation in the event of your death; radically more than
surviving relatives, and nearly (though not quite) as much as one's material
self literally surviving.

But one thing I haven't seen mentioned here is that uploading as an alternative

to cryonics is really a red herring. Cryonics preserves the individual for 
either
reanimation *or* uploading -- or anything in between, for that matter -- which 
may become possible in the future. There is no competition between cryonics
and uploading, only between reanimation and simulation. If you are not
cryopreserved, you can't be uploaded after you die, because we do not have the

technology to create a sufficiently detailed digital scan at present. Preserving
your brain via cryonics (or chemical fixation) is the only realistic means of
getting to an era where sufficient scanning technology exists.

Sure there could be a possibility of adequate scanning technology being
developed before simulation become possible, much as vitrification has been
invented prior to the invention of reanimation. In that case, being scanned for
future simulation purposes would be a similar wager to cryopreservation for
future reanimation. But cryopreservation of the brain for future scanning and

simulation is *already* possible, and will likely remain a better method of self
preservation for some time to come.

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