[ExI] Yesterday's Mashed Potatoes

[ben]

"Rick Strongitharm" <godsdice at gmail.com> wrote:


 >Suppose a person is, bit by bit, replaced by prosthetics including his
 > brain, hypothetically, of course.  At some point that person would
 > lose memory and something that, up to that point has been absolutely
 > subjective.


Well, if that was the case, something was wrong with the replacement 
process!
Replacing your neurons with synthetic equivalents would have to involve 
preservation of their information-processing characteristics and 
'settings', and therefore your memories.

There's no point in replacing your brain with someone else's, is there? 
Or with 'blank' brain matter.

I'd recommend reading the Grandfather Clause chapter in Hans Moravec's 
book 'Mind Children'. I think that book is pretty much essential reading 
for any transhumanist, despite it being 20 years old now. Other books 
which should help are Ray Kurzweil's 'The Age of Spiritual Machines' 
and/or 'The Singularity is Near', Steve Grand's 'Life and how to Make 
it' and of course 'The Spike' by Damien.

In particular, Steve Grand's book will answer all your questions about 
mashed potato.

ben zaiboc