X-Message-Number: 7975 From: Transoniq Hacker <> Subject: Re uploading Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 18:59:52 -0800 (PST) All this discussion reminds me of the old line twins sometimes use when some wit asks them, "How do you tell each other apart?" "Well, I'm always here, but the other one is sometimes gone." Well, I don't know about the rest of you zombies, and maybe I'm missing something, but to me it doesn't really matter (at least as it pertains to this) if the universe is discrete or smooth, infinite or finite, analog or digital. And it doesn't really matter if machines can be built that pass the Turing test, have emotions and self-circuits and problems with the wife and all the rest. And if a simulation of a can opener can ever open a can or only simulated cans. And if they duplicated me on a system that used neurons or neural nets, and whether they called it a computer or called it something else. If they duplicated me atom by atom - right down to the electrons in my self-circuit - he'd still be over THERE, and I'd still be over HERE. And he could pass all the Turing tests and memory tests, and they could run him for 9 months to make sure that the chaos goblin doesn't get him. And he and everybody who knows me could agree that, boy, *they* sure can't tell the difference. And this would all be very interesting. But, call me old-fashioned, but the *second* somebody says, "It seems to have worked. Two things that are identical in all ways are the same thing. A *IS* A. We might as well dispose of the original..." well, he'll be over THERE, and *I'll* be out the goddamn door. Eric Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7975