X-Message-Number: 32532
References: <>
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 11:31:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: 2Arcturus <>
Subject: Thought experiment  & survival

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In trying to do a thought experiment about whole brain emulation, it's taking a 
wrong turn to imagine yourself as you are now alongside the emulation. If it 
were done for the purpose of survival, then by that condition, your current mind
would no longer be continued, and so in a sense, it would not exist -- for 
example, the mindlessness of cryopreservation, deeper than any coma or other 
kind of unconsciousness. So the proper way to do the thought experiment would be
to compare the emulation to the continuation of the body you have now, which 
would have no active mind. 


Ideally, the emulation would support the entire process of your embodied mind, 
resuming from the point where it left off in your present body. Since the mind 
is not defined materially, it does not make sense to regard this as a copy. The 
mind that resumed would be the same mind, just supported by a different 
substrate, in different circumstances, and it would be the only such mind in 
existence, if it were done for the purposes of survival. Yes, emulation raises 
the possibility of copying, as well as merging, splitting, enhancement, and a 
million other possibilities, but for the purposes of a thought experiment about 
survival, copying is not the issue. So then, if you imagine what it would feel 
like to be this emulation, by definition, it would have to feel exactly the same
as you would feel, if you were to find yourself in that circumstance, except 
for your body (although if that were identical also, you would feel no 
difference in your embodiment,
 either).


As we all know, cryonics is only a partial solution to the problem of death, not
a complete solution. There are innumerable ways the brain can be destroyed, for
example, in an explosion or fire, or by a neurodegenerative disease, or crushed
beyond the ability of any computation or scaled technology to reconstruct. 
Those of us who are transhumanist are also dedicated to enhancing the mind in an
unlimited direction, which would not really be possible if were to remain bound
by the constraints of the organic brain's biochemical processes. Maybe other 
alternatives will be found in the future, but for now, brain emulation and 
emulation on more flexible substrates offer the only hope for a comprehensive 
solution to the danger of death and unlimited advancement of the human mind.




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