[ExI] Mind Uploading article in Wikipedia

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2009/4/6 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 9:15 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> And belief in a soul does not make a difference to the basic
>> argument, since it could be argued that even if God miraculously
>> duplicated your soul in the copy this *still* wouldn't result in
>> consciousness being transferred.
>
> I do not want to beat a dead horse, but what is really the point of
> going on debating for the umpteenth time whether "consciousness" is
> "transferred" or not by a given process when the very *existence* of
> such a thing remains to be defined and demonstrated in the first
> place?
>
> As mentioned another time, it is highly probable that any such process
> will be considered as providing "continuity" to the identity of the
> individual concerned whenever this will end up being the dominant
> social perception.
>
> In such circumstances, while it will remains impossible to persuade
> those who choose to think otherwise, the opposite view will quickly
> become a marginal, somewhat lunatic belief, adversely affecting the
> everyday life of those who will actually act in accord with their
> ideas on the subject.

I should have gone further to say that not only will some claim "it
won't really be me" if the soul is magically duplicated, they will
claim the same thing even if the consciousness (whatever that may or
may not be) is magically duplicated. The point I am making is that it
isn't a belief in vitalism, souls or even consciousness that leads to
this position. There are people on this list who are 100% materialist
and still say "it won't really be me".


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou