[ExI] Essential Upload Data

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 4:30 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On 04/05/2020 09:33, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> > I believe the counterargument is the endocrine system's measurable
> > effects on personality, dominant moods, and several other
> > psychological parts that are commonly regarded as the self - as the
> > thing that warrants uploading.
>
> No argument here, and I suppose I should modify my original statement
> about changes to the body not having much of an effect on our identity.
> Changes to the endocrine system would be significant, and should be
> included in the somatic data that goes along with the brain data. Still
> no need to preserve the entire body just for this, though.


The usual choices are "just the head" or "the entire body".  Since the
former choice removes the endocrine system (and anything else outside the
head that might possibly be relevant), that pushes people to the latter
choice.

It should be noted that this is theoretically a false dichotomy.  For
instance, if one merely chopped off the arms and legs then preserved the
head and torso, that should capture everything that will need to be scanned
to create an accurate digital self, with arms and legs added back in from
generic human data.

But in practice, real options presented today for cryopreservation make
that a true dichotomy.  For example, as of today, Alcor offers to preserve
just the head or the entire body; they do not offer any "in between"
option.  Every other cryonics service I've seen, either offers the same
choice or only offers one or the other option.  So there is a real,
practical choice - again, in terms of what is available today - between
"just the head" and "the entire body".  Since no other options are
available today, no other options merit consideration for someone facing
cryopreservation today.  Other options might be considered for a future
service, if there is a realistic chance that some cryopreservation service
might someday offer other options.
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