[ExI] Technical Uploading Difficulties

[Lee Corbin]

Henrique and Stephano comment on uploads as "simulations".

Stephano writes

> Henrique Moraes Machado wrote
> 
> <cetico.iconoclasta at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Lee Corbin wrote
> >
> > > And once a human is successfully uploaded, the proof of the
> > > pudding will be that his or her friends find communicating with
> > > the upload to be essentially indistinguishable from communicating
> > > with the original.
> >
> >  And how would it be different from a perfect simulation?
>  
> I think it wouldn't be different at all, but if we accept that we live
> in a phenomenic, rather than noumenic, reality this is all there is to
> say.

I agree. But "simulation" is ambiguous, I've always said.  A very, very
good actor (especially if he's a superhuman AI), might simulate you
just fine, fooling all your friends and relatives. In other words, this
god-like being is just pulling the strings on a puppet.  Unfortunately,
that counts as a successful simulation of you on some usages of the
term.

But to *emulate* you means that something really is you, just as one
operating system may emulate another. I didn't make this distinction
above when I first wrote, due to shortage of space.  A successful
upload emulates you perfectly, has your thoughts and feelings (or,
perhaps the ones you may have tomorrow), and your genuine
internal experiences.

Lee