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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>>…Frankly, you’re next…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We are a looooong long ways from true uploading. Even the very young among us are unlikely to live to see that. But we could likely do some kinda fakey pseudo-uploading which could be a great toy, and will make a buttload of money for whoever gets it to the market. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Those of us who have children often crack up when our five year old comes up with some saying that we know they learned from us, some quirky mannerism perhaps or odd spike-ism. Example: Saturday my seven year old son's playmate did a fully splayed flying pancake into the dirt. I didn't see it, but we noticed he was dusty from knees to chin. I said "This must have been some fall, huh?" My son popped up with "Ja, it was quite spectacular." He used the same accent and mannerism I use when I make those kinds of comments.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>So now we have these computers with cameras, and they can read what we write and listen to what we say, taking digital samples of our voice as we talk on Skype and so forth. We can imagine a kinda-sorta uploading where the computer imitates our style using our digitally recorded voices and our image on the screen. Using only current technology, we might be able to rig something that feels like we are visiting with our digital selves. Clearly that is a form of nondestructive uploading in a very loose sense, a toy version of it anyway. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>We would know it isn’t really uploading, for uploading requires machine-based or artificial intelligence. The universal rule is that any algorithm which we can understand is not artificial intelligence. If we don’t understand something, then it is magic. We know true intelligence is ineffable, incomprehensible, magic. So if we can understand it, it is comprehensible and thus becomes not magic, therefore it isn’t intelligence, and isn’t uploading.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Someday we may figure out how neurons actually work and how they work together. Then the workings of the brain become at least theoretically comprehensible, and therefore less magic and less intelligent. So the more we learn, the dumber we get. If we figure it out completely, then we may eventually discover what I have already begun to suspect: that we are stupid.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I could imagine using the above toy with our parents and grandparents, so that after they are gone, we could have a better-than-nothing Eliza-ish “discussion” of sorts with their avatar. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Would that be cool or what? <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>{8-]<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>spike<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>