[ExI] Fwd: [Cosmic Engineers] Re: Sharing/engineering proposal

[Ben Zaiboc]

Sen Yamamoto <sen.otaku at googlemail.com> wrote:

> (#-Assumes that uploading is somehow superior to natural
> existance- i
> cant argue this either way- simply something that i dont
> often see
> adressed.)

???

The assumption (conclusion, rather) that uploading is inherently superior to 'natural' existence (biological existence) is one of the cornerstones of transhumanism, at least for many transhumanists (depending on their opinion on whether an upload can 'be' you. For me it's a no-brainer, but that's a separate argument).

How's this for 'somehow' superior?:

No susceptibility to biological/chemical attack (bacterial/viral infections and poisoning)

Vastly more robust physical structure (potentially, anyway.  Nothing stopping you uploading into computational aerogel, though, if you really wanted!)

No deterioration with time (not strictly true, but the deterioration of the kind of hardware envisioned would be far, far slower)

Access to your own mental architecture, and the possibility of easily and reversibly altering it, opening up the way to improve your mental capacities, in whatever way is important to you

Copying/Backing up your mind, with all that that implies

Access to virtual realities that are as real as anything you can experience now, and much more varied.

Vastly reduced energy and material resource requirements

(Probably) Increased speed of cognition and/or the ability to speed up/slow down your mental processes

Ability to transmit your mind to remote locations with suitable equipment to recieve and run it (effectively, travel at the speed of light)

Reparing the hardware when and if necessary would be vastly easier, so lifespans would be unlimited, or at least indefinite, even if you decided to stay in the same hardware indefinitely (not very likely, I'd think)

Ability to download into a variety of physical bodies (or simply remote-control them), to operate in different 'real-life' environments

There's 11 reasons why being an upload is better than being 2 pounds of fragile jelly, just off the top of my head.  There are certainly more.

Ben Zaiboc