[ExI] Coherent vs. Incoherent Fears of Being Uploaded

Emlyn emlynoregan at gmail.com
Wed Jan 20 12:53:42 UTC 2010


2010/1/18 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
> 2010/1/18 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:
>> The central question, of course, is whether one would
>> *survive* the uploading process.
>
> I am under the impression that this betrays a more general fear which
> probably originates from the inapplicability of evolution-encoded
> reactions to novel scenarios.
>
> For instance, does one survive entire material destruction? The
> evolution-encoded answer to that, by extension from massive bodily
> harm leading to death, is "obviously not", irrespective of various
> consolatory religious theories to the contrary.
>
> But what about teleport? The truth is that the death of the original
> individual and the birth of a copy, or the continued existence of the
> former, are both plausible ways of describing an hypothetical event
> the nature of which does not change in the least depending on our view
> thereof.
>
> Another classical Gedankenexperiment: what about an operation where my
> neurons are replaced one by one by other, functionally equivalent,...
> carbon-based neurons, until none remains? Do I die? And when?
>
> This is why I think that the curious idea that the interesting thing
> in organic brains would not be the kind of information processing they
> perform and their performance in such task, but some other, undefined
> and elusive, quality, is a matter of fear which cannot be overcome
> with rational argument.
>
> --
> Stefano Vaj


Right on Stefano, spot on.

-- 
Emlyn

http://www.songsofmiseryanddespair.com - My show, Fringe 2010
http://point7.wordpress.com - My blog



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