[extropy-chat] "Dead Time" of the Brain.

[Heartland]

Heartland:
>>>>If there are 2 instances of brain type AND each instance produces one
>>>>instance of mind type, then this MUST add up to 2 instances of mind type.
>>>>Yes or no?
>>
Clark:
>>>No.

Heartland:
>> 1+1 does not equal 2? Well, I guess that is my cue to leave this discussion.

Eliezer:
> Do you think that if your brain used twice as much atoms to store the
> same data, there would be twice as much people in your head?

Of course not. The point is that if you have two identical, but separate brains, 
this must add up to two separate *instances* of one *type* of mind. If you have any 
experience in OOP, and I can't imagine you don't, then you should know exactly what 
I mean.

Why is the distinction between type and instance important? Because life that I 
subjectively experience now is an *instantiated* type of mind, never a static 
information about the mind. That experience irreversibly ends when the instance of 
mind process is no longer active. As I said to Clark, the concept of "mind type" is 
meaningless in the context of our survival. Cryonics preserves types of life, not 
instances of life so I see no point in signing up for suspension. Is it depressing 
that death is irreversible? Of course it is, but it's true.

S.