<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">spike,</span><br></div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><div class="y_msg_container"><br><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> Oh I do disagree sir. If you go down far enough, you have a number of</span><br>> molecules that can be completely described by a set of numbers. </div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The key word there is "described". Yes, we can describe just about anything digitally. But a digital description of a thing is not the thing unless that thing happens also to actually be digital. We can make identical copies of
software files on our computers, for example, but we cannot make identical digital copies of things that are not digital.</span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div class="y_msg_container">> Of course I don't think we can sim a brain, even a flea brain, down </div><div class="y_msg_container">> to the molecular level, but I don't think we would need to.</div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container">In principle, I think we can digitally sim a brain, even down to the molecular level. But at most I think it would result only in weak AI. Or, in the case off an attempted upload of a personality, I think it would result at most in a sort of unconscious cartoon of that personality. (Cartoon is probably not the best word here, but at the moment I can't think of a better one.) </div><div class="y_msg_container"><br></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span
style="font-size: 12pt;">> Sure but we don't necessarily need consciousness I suppose. What we </span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">> need is </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">creativity. </span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br></span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I thought we were discussing the possibility of digital consciousness!</span></div><div class="y_msg_container"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>I see there are quite a few interesting emails in this thread, including yours. I wish I had more time to address all of them in more detail.<br><br></span></div><div class="y_msg_container">-Gordon</div> </div> </div> </div></body></html>