[ExI] Mind Uploading article in Wikipedia

[ben]

I want to thank John K Clark for the belly-laugh provoked by this post:

 >I want to thank Giulio Prisco, I did not know Wikipedia had an article on
 >mind uploading. The article is actually quite good, and it says two things
 >that I've been saying for well over a decade. First it says:
 >
 >[Mind Uploading] "denies the vitalist view of human life and 
consciousness."
 >
 >But of course nearly everyone, even most people on this list believe 
in the
 >vitalist view.
 >
 >It then says:
 >
 >"The prospect of uploading human consciousness in this manner raises many
 >philosophical questions involving identity, individuality and the soul."
 >
 >But of course nearly everyone, even most people on this list believe 
in the
 >soul.
 >
 > John K Clark


but when he says:

 >I don't want to insult people by saying that they are too cowardly to 
follow
 >an idea as far as it will go regardless of whatever strange destination it
 >leads to, so I can only conclude that most on this list disagree with my
 >basic premise and believe in the ideas behind vitalism and the soul, 
even if
 >they don't like the particular words very much.
 >
 >And it's not just Extropians, my premise is too shocking for Shock Level
 >Four also. Sorry if I sound a bit cranky, but that's the way I see it.

and

 >If you could find no reason not to walk into a chamber that will make 
a copy
 >of your body and then instantly destroy the original then you are one 
of the
 >very very few that agree with me. Perhaps there are more, but they sure
 >haven't spoken up much in the last 15 years.


I feel impelled to say:  Don't be downhearted John!  There are at least 
some other people here who
definitely /don't/ believe in a supernatural (or crypto-supernatural) 
soul.  I even know of at least one person entirely outside of the usual 
transhumanist circles who naturally assumes that they are 'just 
information', and see no philosphical problems in uploading.

I think that, although we seem to be evolved to be predisposed to 
believe in supernatural explanations, there's a quietly growing minority 
of people who could be called 'real' materialists.  Like American 
Atheists, there may be a lot more of them than anybody suspects.


Ben Zaiboc