[ExI] Repressed Science of Brain Transplantation

[Stefano Vaj]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 5:24 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> We began arguing on this list many, many months ago
> whether or not the body is necessary for the experience
> of emotion (or of all emotion).
>
> Prominent researchers can be found who claim that it
> is, yet logically, their case seems weak. After all, if it's
> conceivable that our whole universe can be emulated,
> and it doesn't have any bodies, then why can't my mind?

Absolutely. But were it true, in order to experience emotions you
would have to emulate as well the body, or the relevant portions
thereof. Not that this would increase much the complexity of the
emulation, I suspect less than an order of magnitude in bytes.

In fact, I believe that there is here a more general argument, namely
that against "you cannot be uploaded, because your
intelligence/identity is diffused throughout your body, not just your
brain". Reply: even if this assumption is correct, what's the big
deal? When you have a good enough emulation of the brain, to scan and
add the rest is probably trivial enough.

Stefano Vaj