X-Message-Number: 8865
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 08:05:17 -0800
From: "Joseph J. Strout" <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #8858 - #8863

Sorry to go on about this, but there's a clear misconception here...
In Cryomsg #8861, Olaf Henny wrote:

>Joe, when in a couple of centuries the two of us, you as a mind
>uploaded construct and I in for of ever patched up flesh get
>caught in a fire, your circuits will melt about the same time as
>my brains will boil out.  Unless you will have an uploading
>facility right in your home, I doubt, that you will update it
>weekly...

No, you don't need an uploading facility in your home.  You need only a
thick cable and a mass-storage device.  Uploading a biological brain is an
incredibly difficult task, that will no doubt require a huge expensive
facility.  But once it's done, then making backups is trivial; artificial
brains will no doubt be built with a simple output port for exactly this
purpose.  Plug yourelf in, hit the switch, and wake up 8 hours later (or
whatever) with a fresh backup.

So when the two of us get caught in a fire, I will basically have up to a
week's worth of total retrograde amnesia, but you will be regrettably dead.

>Even if it is as easy as
>shaving in the morning, but not as visible, if it remains undone,
>there is great temptation to delay.

Well, that will vary from person to person, no doubt.  But I suspect that
when death becomes rare, it will seem even more tragic than it is today.
And this would encourage people to spend their one night a week (or month,
or whatever suits you) in making sure it doesn't happen.

>Here is a chilling thought: What if the above fire catches us in
>the uploading facility? >:->

This is tragic indeed, because then the patient(s) at the facility will be
lost, when they were right on the verge of being saved.

>>But there's *still* probably no such thing as immortality, because
>>ultimately the universe will run down.
>
>Where is your optimism?  By that time we surely will have the
>capability to hop to another universe...

Well, I *did* say "probably."   ;)

>Let's just simple call it attaining megalife (one word to give it
>more punch). ;-)

That's an idea, but I agree with Will that we need something a little more
respectable-sounding.  "Megalife" sounds like either a comic book character
or a multi-vitamin to me.

Cheers,
-- Joe


,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           Department of Neuroscience, UCSD   |
|               http://www-acs.ucsd.edu/~jstrout/  |
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