X-Message-Number: 33474
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2011 20:31:13 -0700
From: "Eric" <>
Subject: Subject: #33458: Uploading 

Four responses come to mind...
First: I didn't think there was all that much vitriol. And I never
meant to imply anything about your capacity for intellectual
abstraction - quite the contrary!
Second: There was probably more vitriol than there should
have been - sorry about that!
Third: What vitriol was there I didn't mean to be directed at
you personally, but more at this endlessly recurring concept.
It triggers an emotional response in me because it's one of
those life-and-death issues that tend to set off some of us
cryonicists (me). Sometimes it seems that my cryo-buddies are
one of the last glowing embers of rationality in an insane
world and it would seem that such a bunch of life-extensionist
reductionist materialists would be among the very *last* folks
to be sucked into this siren's call. I'm sure I'll get along fine with
their copies, but still...
Fourth: In the (highly unlikely, IMO) chance that copies actually
become possible and this sort of thinking becomes common, it
could be a life-and-death issue for *me*. I wouldn't want my
resurrection-techs in the future to be thinking, "This guy's platform
is too much trouble to fix, and we've had nothing but great
feedback from the duplicates we've been doing, let's just save
ourselves some time and start fresh..."

>Really though, I would like to know why you are so against the
>uploading/downloading concept. What harm is there in bringing new life into
>the world? Even if it is not an "identical  copy. After all, we "piece of
>meat entities" are not identical from one moment to the next ourselves. The
>mind is a dynamic entity. You are not the same person from the night
>before, when you wake up the next morning. Although, you are, "very similar .

I don't mind the tiniest little bit about bringing this new life into
the world - never said I did. It's the disposing of the original
that I object to. And I know I'm a dynamic entity. Being multicellular,
continuity is very important to me, and an awful lot of the changes
are something I'd prefer to do without. With the death of every
little neuron, a little bit of "me" dies - even if I don't notice it at
the time. If I had my druthers, I'd prefer to gain new neurons rather
than lose my old ones. In the meantime, I'm doing everything I can
to slow down these damn changes. You could probably "close the
deal" with me if you were offering little synthetic neurons that would
seek out my own neurons that were about to crap out and replace
them, rather than figuring out elaborate ways to destroy the perfectly
good ones en mass and "replace" the whole shebang.

Take care,
Eric

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