X-Message-Number: 32552
References: <>
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 17:18:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Luke Parrish <>
Subject: Reassembly based transportation

What made it make the most sense to me was when I
envisioned a dissasembly and reassembly mechanism taking
the form of a portal that I could stick my hand through
and pull it back seamlessly. Then the only remaining question
is whether I can safely stick my head through.

If I can stick part of my head through without losing any
perceptible consciousness, the gut-level objection to putting
my whole head or whole body through seems to diminish.
Only a very tiny fraction of "me" is ever not in existence or
in two places at a given time, and that fraction is not sentient
on its own.

Note that moving an animate being via atomic-precision
reassembly is a *much* more difficult technical proposition
from transporting a solid-state object (such as a cryopreserved
human) from one point to another, because maintaining
bloodflow and nerve impulses would complicate matters.
Furthermore, a solid state cryogenic object could be moved or
duplicated over a course of many hours or even years.


> I found Moravec's description rather distasteful, a one way transfer
> and no way to get back.  It might be acceptable if a person was near
> death.  That's unlikely because the technology needed for the transfer
> is more advanced than it would take to cure any kind of problem
> including age.

> There is no reason for such a drastic approach.  Advanced
> nanotechnology would allow a fully reversible uploading starting with
> "mere" neural interfaces.  I am not the only one who thinks this 
> way.

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