[ExI] Uploads are self

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 16/03/2026 10:35, Keith Henson wrote:
> When the technology supports uploading, it should be able to store
> bodies and reverse the process.  No matter if you settle in the meat
> or uploaded state, you should be able to freely move between them.
> Continuous memory, not even a loss of consciousness during moves.
>
> How many of you would buy a car without a test drive?



That can only work if the uploading process is non-destructive. I expect that destructive uploading will be achieved long before non-destructive.

I also expect that robotic bodies and brains will be developed before non-destructive uploading, which might mean that it will never be developed, as there would be no need for it. It will be a lot easier to load your consciousness into a synthetic brain than into a biological one, synthetic bodies, once perfected, are almost certainly going to be superior to biological ones in just about every way, so going back to biology after uploading would seem to be a huge step backwards.

I'm not sure that the car analogy is apt, for a few reasons, but with destructive uploading, it doesn't apply in any case.

Thinking about the legal situation with cryonic preservation, I should think that similar problems will apply to uploading, and it seems likely that there will be difficulties. Some people will no doubt regard it as a form of suicide, and try to prevent other people from doing it while they are still alive, so it might be that uploading only becomes possible (or rather, legal) after you've died. In some places, anyway.

I'm also wondering how long it will be before opposition to uploading based on the idea of uploads being 'a danger to real people' or some such notion, will start to arise.

It might be worth starting to think of how to combat, or guard against, threats to, and restrictions on, uploading well before it becomes a real thing. As soon as people in general start to realise that uploading is going to be possible, there will be bound to be objections to it.

-- 
Ben