[extropy-chat] FWD (SK) Reanimation of Humans...

Acy James Stapp astapp at amazeent.com
Thu Jun 30 17:16:56 UTC 2005


I fail to see the issue; it seems we are arguing semantics.

Your definition of "a consciousness" is a time continuum of 
positive brain activity. When the activity stops, that 
"consciousness" ceases to exist, and a new one is created when 
activity resumes.

My definition of "a consciousness" is that pattern of activity
which occurs when a particular brain is experiencing positive
activity. I just forget about the continuity.

Both definitions are equally valid. There's no sense arguing
over what the word means because they are two equally valid
interpretations that need to be differentiated. The whole
debate is childish in my opinion. "That's my word!" "No, it's
my word! You can't have it." Let's just share the damn word.

In my ontology, a "consciousness" is the subjective experience
of "mentation" (an active process) over the "mind" (a continuum 
of abstract data) running on a "substrate" (brain or CPU). What
you call "consciousness" I would probably call an "awakening".
A change of mind would be called "learning" if it reduced
entropy and "debilitation" if it increased entropy. A substrate
change would be "uploading". 

Terry W. Colvin wrote:
> I don't know if I've raised this issue here before, but I have grave
> misgivings on this cryro technique being applied on humans.
> 
> I have voiced my concerns elsewhere before, but the issue tends to be
> misunderstood.
> 
> Basically, it all has to do with the nature of our consciousness.
> 
> Let me state it this way -- is a book conscious? An encyclopedia? A
> computer switched off? Or anything else static? I think we can all
> agree without question with a rather emphatic "NO".
> 



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