[ExI] upload, download, all around the townload

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 28/04/2025 05:53, Anton Sherwood wrote:
> On 2025-04-22 13:47, Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat wrote:
>
>> The level of technology that we're envisaging should be easily 
>> capable of recreating a brain from the recorded information. Not that 
>> I see that as being a very good option. There will surely be better 
>> physical systems that could serve to embody an upload. I'm thinking 
>> along the lines of utility fog brains and bodies, but there will be 
>> other options too, I'd think. 
>
>
> How much thought has been given to operating systems for fog?
>
> I can't see controlling foglets directly with my mind!
>

Not directly, of course not, but indirectly. We already control around 
30 trillion biological cells. Obviously not with your conscious mind, 
and not directly, but the same kind of heirarchical control would 
probably be suitable for foglets. There's really no limit to how complex 
a system can get (apart from fundamental physical contraints) if you use 
heirarchies of control. We don't control even relatively 'simple' 
actions like walking and talking (not actually simple at all), directly 
with our conscious minds, and things that are actually fairly simple, 
like regulating heartbeat, are not controlled directly by our conscious 
minds either.
>
>> [...]  It could well be that shortly after being uploaded, people 
>> would change so much that downloading again would be impractical, and 
>> creating a new, synthetic brain/body would be the only practical 
>> solution. 
>
>
> The division of our brains into lobes presumably limits long-range
> neuronal links, and I wonder whether that limitation helps us.
> Uploading into a "flat space", in which such speedbumps are erased, is
> one way to make a mind not fit into the old mold.

I don't think so. Even at the sluggish speeds our axons work at, 
communication within the brain isn't really limited by its architecture, 
as far as I know. We even cope with ridiculous inefficiencies like the 
recurrent laryngeal nerve, where the brain's control of the larynx goes 
via a great big loop around the heart. Doesn't seem to inconvenience 
opera singers. I can't speak for giraffes, though!

-- 
Ben
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