[ExI] Uploading

[Ben Zaiboc]

Alan Grimes <agrimes at speakeasy.net> wrote:

> it might be
> possible to build a hybrid mind architecture with a very
> non-zero chance
> of success and with benefits far beyond what anyone has
> ever promised on behalf of uploading. 

...

> Are there any real transhumanists on this list even
> slightly interested
> in becoming a million times smarter than they are right
> now?


Now you're confusing me.

First, you appear to be vehemently against the very idea 
of uploading (I'm still not sure why), then you throw in 
the concept of "a hybrid mind architecture" using 
neural interfacing?

You've just described one uploading scenario!

There are many (if not most) people on this list interested
in becoming many times smarter than they are now, and the 
first step in that process has to be some form of uploading
into a non-biological brain.  

That may turn out to be the best way to unravel the 
architecture of our minds, and almost certainly the only 
realistic way to radically improve them. 
While our minds are still implemented in meat, there's little 
chance of being able to improve them in any significant way.

Your suggestion is an interesting one in that it would 
presumably give the uploadee some control over the 
pace and degree of the process. Some people might want to
stop halfway, and remain part biological at least for a while 
(Why? Beats me! But there would surely be some).
Of course, their hand might be forced eventually, 
if life-extension tech. doesn't exist to keep the biological 
part alive indefinitely.

I imagine some kind of 'parallel running' would be used to 
fine-tune the non-biological parts, and when bio and non-bio 
functions are perfectly aligned, the bio can be slowly phased out.
Or maybe the whole brain would be kept intact, and the non-bio 
part would grow so much that it was implementing the vast 
majority of your consciousness.  Eventually losing the 
original brain would be of no real consequence.

Ben Zaiboc