[extropy-chat] Evidence for the self surviving brain disassembly? (was Altered genes let roundworms wiggle longer)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Mar 28, 2004 at 11:39:38AM +1000, Brett Paatsch wrote:

> If the continuation of my self (my very life) depended on it, like 
> in cryonics for instance, I'd be pretty uncomfortable assuming
> that all the matter that makes up my living brain could be replaced
> in one go with a mere copy to someone else's level of satisfaction. 

I don't understand where "mere copy" comes from. "Can't tell from the
original" is good enough for external observers. "Can't tell myself" + "can't
tell from the original, external observers" + "can't tell from deep level
rich operational fingerprint" should be good enough for anybody.
 
> Why shouldn't I be uncomfortable? I don't think of myself as merely
> what other people perceive me to be. What evidence is there that I
> or any homo sapiens can survive the complete disassembly of their
> brain? 

An anser to that should be in the FAQ.

Briefly, animals can be shut down for about one hour, and resume cleanly.
That info is encoded in the physical system.
Isomorphic substitution results in the same system, given pattern identity.
Pattern identity follows from measurable observations (quantum identity).
The actual requirements are very far removed from that, given biological
infoprocessing noisefloor.
 
> So long as this question remains unanswered what separates 
> cryonics (that posits that the self can survive the disassembly of
> the brain in which one currently experiences it) from religious
> systems that believe the same thing?  Isn't it a case of pick your
> belief-poison?

I can't believe we're holding this conversation on this list, 2004.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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