What happens if your mind lives for ever on the internet?

[JacksinPA]

What happens if your mind lives for ever on the internet? | Technology | The Guardian

It may be some way off, but mind uploading, the digital duplication of your mental essence, could expand human experience into a virtual afterlife

Imagine that a person’s brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in a computer simulation. The person’s mind and memories, emotions and personality would be duplicated. In effect, a new and equally valid version of that person would now exist, in a potentially immortal, digital form. This futuristic possibility is called mind uploading. The science of the brain and of consciousness increasingly suggests that mind uploading is possible – there are no laws of physics to prevent it. The technology is likely to be far in our future; it may be centuries before the details are fully worked out – and yet given how much interest and effort is already directed towards that goal, mind uploading seems inevitable. Of course we can’t be certain how it might affect our culture but as the technology of simulation and artificial neural networks shapes up, we can guess what that mind uploading future might be like.

Suppose one day you go into an uploading clinic to have your brain scanned. Let’s be generous and pretend the technology works perfectly. It’s been tested and debugged. It captures all your synapses in sufficient detail to recreate your unique mind. It gives that mind a standard-issue, virtual body that’s reasonably comfortable, with your face and voice attached, in a virtual environment like a high-quality video game. Let’s pretend all of this has come true.

Who is that second you?
=======================================================
Check out (Netflix) one of the most popular episodes on the British sci-fi anthology, Black Mirror. It's called San Junipero. It's a sea side party town set on the California coast that is a virtual reality creation where the elderly & the deceased can go as their virtual younger selves & relive their younger lives. All via the Cloud. Creepy but intriguing & coming soon. Their virtual lives are summarized in the final scene: a robot moves the cyber modules that are their personalities in & out of their slots depending on where they are at the moment. Doesn't look cheap but beats cryogenics.

 

[humbolt]

You get a bill, most likely.

 

[JacksinPA]

You get a bill, most likely.

One of the cornerstones of capitalism: nothing is free. For socialism: to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities.

 

[dirtpoorchris]

One of the cornerstones of capitalism: nothing is free. For socialism: to each according to his needs, from each according to his abilities.

Stuff is free in capatalism all the time. Like when someone has a capatalism folly and they need to clear out their stocks in 1 day. They give the **** away for free so they dont have to pay to garbage dump it.

Or chains giving out 1 free food item to lure people into their store.

 

[JacksinPA]

Stuff is free in capatalism all the time. Like when someone has a capatalism folly and they need to clear out their stocks in 1 day. They give the **** away for free so they dont have to pay to garbage dump it.

Or chains giving out 1 free food item to lure people into their store.

Not quite the same thing as paying the bill for an electronic eternity spent doing whatever you please.

 

[PirateMk1]

What happens if your mind lives for ever on the internet? | Technology | The Guardian

It may be some way off, but mind uploading, the digital duplication of your mental essence, could expand human experience into a virtual afterlife

Imagine that a person’s brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in a computer simulation. The person’s mind and memories, emotions and personality would be duplicated. In effect, a new and equally valid version of that person would now exist, in a potentially immortal, digital form. This futuristic possibility is called mind uploading. The science of the brain and of consciousness increasingly suggests that mind uploading is possible – there are no laws of physics to prevent it. The technology is likely to be far in our future; it may be centuries before the details are fully worked out – and yet given how much interest and effort is already directed towards that goal, mind uploading seems inevitable. Of course we can’t be certain how it might affect our culture but as the technology of simulation and artificial neural networks shapes up, we can guess what that mind uploading future might be like.

Suppose one day you go into an uploading clinic to have your brain scanned. Let’s be generous and pretend the technology works perfectly. It’s been tested and debugged. It captures all your synapses in sufficient detail to recreate your unique mind. It gives that mind a standard-issue, virtual body that’s reasonably comfortable, with your face and voice attached, in a virtual environment like a high-quality video game. Let’s pretend all of this has come true.

Who is that second you?
=======================================================
Check out (Netflix) one of the most popular episodes on the British sci-fi anthology, Black Mirror. It's called San Junipero. It's a sea side party town set on the California coast that is a virtual reality creation where the elderly & the deceased can go as their virtual younger selves & relive their younger lives. All via the Cloud. Creepy but intriguing & coming soon. Their virtual lives are summarized in the final scene: a robot moves the cyber modules that are their personalities in & out of their slots depending on where they are at the moment. Doesn't look cheap but beats cryogenics.

Wouldn't be you. It would be a duplicate.

 

[lwf]

Wouldn't be you. It would be a duplicate.

How do you know that when you go to sleep at night your true consciousness isn't destroyed and a duplicate consciousness isn't reformed from your old memories?

 

[Chomsky]

How do you know that when you go to sleep at night your true consciousness isn't destroyed and a duplicate consciousness isn't reformed from your old memories?

This is getting really heavy ...

 

[JacksinPA]

Because you wake up in the morning & have to go to the same lousy job, or cut the grass, etc. There is no escaping you.

 

[nitroexpress]

What happens if your mind lives for ever on the internet? | Technology | The Guardian

It may be some way off, but mind uploading, the digital duplication of your mental essence, could expand human experience into a virtual afterlife

Imagine that a person’s brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in a computer simulation. The person’s mind and memories, emotions and personality would be duplicated. In effect, a new and equally valid version of that person would now exist, in a potentially immortal, digital form. This futuristic possibility is called mind uploading. The science of the brain and of consciousness increasingly suggests that mind uploading is possible – there are no laws of physics to prevent it. The technology is likely to be far in our future; it may be centuries before the details are fully worked out – and yet given how much interest and effort is already directed towards that goal, mind uploading seems inevitable. Of course we can’t be certain how it might affect our culture but as the technology of simulation and artificial neural networks shapes up, we can guess what that mind uploading future might be like.

Suppose one day you go into an uploading clinic to have your brain scanned. Let’s be generous and pretend the technology works perfectly. It’s been tested and debugged. It captures all your synapses in sufficient detail to recreate your unique mind. It gives that mind a standard-issue, virtual body that’s reasonably comfortable, with your face and voice attached, in a virtual environment like a high-quality video game. Let’s pretend all of this has come true.

Who is that second you?

Didn't work out to well for Johnny Depp in the movie Transcendence.

 

[PirateMk1]

How do you know that when you go to sleep at night your true consciousness isn't destroyed and a duplicate consciousness isn't reformed from your old memories?

Your mind is continuous asleep or unconscious. Continuity is dependent on connection. For you to be you and not a duplicate you have to be tethered somehow to insure continuity. For instance you want to be downloaded onto the internet you must be connected and have some functions active on both sides of the connection for some period of time, similar to the process in our brains where neurons are continually replaced by newer ones. This presumes that consciousness is not restricted to its initial habitation.

 

[lwf]

Because you wake up in the morning & have to go to the same lousy job, or cut the grass, etc. There is no escaping you.

But if everyone's consciousness is destroyed upon falling asleep and a copy is created from the stored memories of the previous day, then your job and the world around you would be unaffected. You would just be working with people who mistakenly believe that the memories they have are their own instead of the imperfectly copied memories of a previous consciousness that inhabited their body yesterday.

 

[lwf]

Your mind is continuous asleep or unconscious. Continuity is dependent on connection. For you to be you and not a duplicate you have to be tethered somehow to insure continuity. For instance you want to be downloaded onto the internet you must be connected and have some functions active on both sides of the connection for some period of time, similar to the process in our brains where neurons are continually replaced by newer ones. This presumes that consciousness is not restricted to its initial habitation.

The human brain is continuous during sleep. Consciousness is not. Consciousness goes away and then appears to return. Are we "coming back" from something or somewhere when we wake up? Are our memories simply stored in our organic brains and waiting for us to return? What if someone or something else "returned" instead of me? Wouldn't it have exactly the same access to my memories, emotions, and beliefs? How would it know it is not me? How do I know I am not it?

 

[dirtpoorchris]

Your mind is continuous asleep or unconscious. Continuity is dependent on connection. For you to be you and not a duplicate you have to be tethered somehow to insure continuity. For instance you want to be downloaded onto the internet you must be connected and have some functions active on both sides of the connection for some period of time, similar to the process in our brains where neurons are continually replaced by newer ones. This presumes that consciousness is not restricted to its initial habitation.

How do you know they cant or wont be able to hold the exactly energy pattern in the mind exactly still while destroying the rest of the body and holding the exact structure alive as it is literally turned into a representative shell. Like instantly swapping out hardrives while they are still on by literally taking its physical space with perfect grace. Then hook this brain shell up to the internet.

 

[PirateMk1]

The human brain is continuous during sleep. Consciousness is not. Consciousness goes away and then appears to return. Are we "coming back" from something or somewhere when we wake up? Are our memories simply stored in our organic brains and waiting for us to return? What if someone or something else "returned" instead of me? Wouldn't it have exactly the same access to my memories, emotions, and beliefs? How would it know it is not me? How do I know I am not it?

Measureable consciousness is not continuous. Consciousness is a presumably a result of a certain level of brain activity, as activity increases consciousness returns. Consciousness can be best described a awareness of self.

 

[PirateMk1]

How do you know they cant or wont be able to hold the exactly energy pattern in the mind exactly still while destroying the rest of the body and holding the exact structure alive as it is literally turned into a representative shell. Like instantly swapping out hardrives while they are still on by literally taking its physical space with perfect grace. Then hook this brain shell up to the internet.

Without continuity the replacement by definition is a duplicate. An exact duplicate, but a duplicate none the less.

 

[lwf]

Measureable consciousness is not continuous. Consciousness is a presumably a result of a certain level of brain activity, as activity increases consciousness returns. Consciousness can be best described a awareness of self.

By this definition, consciousness could theoretically be duplicated. If I could exactly map 100% of the activity of your brain into an identical cloned brain, then would there be two "yous?" What if it was in a cloned body dressed like you. Which one would be you? If I took my eyes off of the two yous and you changed positions, is there any way for me to know which one was the real you? You would both honestly believe that you were the real PirateMk1. Would killing one of you have any effect on the world at all? Whichever body and brain I spared would live out its life the same as if I had never cloned you. It would go to work, have the same opinion of its coworkers, and love its family exactly the same.

What if instead of allowing both of you to survive in a healthy body, I copied the contents of your brain over to a cloned brain and body and destroyed (or allowed to expire) your current body. Would the result be any different?

 

[JacksinPA]

But if everyone's consciousness is destroyed upon falling asleep and a copy is created from the stored memories of the previous day, then your job and the world around you would be unaffected. You would just be working with people who mistakenly believe that the memories they have are their own instead of the imperfectly copied memories of a previous consciousness that inhabited their body yesterday.

There are many people who believe that we all live in our own singular or collective illusions.

 

[JacksinPA]

The mind is a very large collections of electronic circuits. So is a supercomputer. The merging of the two in order to create uploadable virtual you is not far in the future. San Junipero, here we come. We pass an exit ramp in life called DEATH & meet at the bar in San Junipero, or wherever we want. Since it's all programmable, you get to pick. Shangrila? Heaven? Hell (just visiting)? Meet your god for a deep chat?

 

[OrphanSlug]

Skynet has competition.

 

[PirateMk1]

By this definition, consciousness could theoretically be duplicated. If I could exactly map 100% of the activity of your brain into an identical cloned brain, then would there be two "yous?" What if it was in a cloned body dressed like you. Which one would be you? If I took my eyes off of the two yous and you changed positions, is there any way for me to know which one was the real you? You would both honestly believe that you were the real PirateMk1. Would killing one of you have any effect on the world at all? Whichever body and brain I spared would live out its life the same as if I had never cloned you. It would go to work, have the same opinion of its coworkers, and love its family exactly the same.

What if instead of allowing both of you to survive in a healthy body, I copied the contents of your brain over to a cloned brain and body and destroyed (or allowed to expire) your current body. Would the result be any different?

In order for you to be you and not a duplicate there HAS to be continuity. In your example they would be the same people a single entity if they were linked and intermingled thoughts, the moment that link severed they become 2 the original and duplicate and therefor different and at that instant divergent.

 

[dirtpoorchris]

The mind is a very large collections of electronic circuits. So is a supercomputer. The merging of the two in order to create uploadable virtual you is not far in the future. San Junipero, here we come. We pass an exit ramp in life called DEATH & meet at the bar in San Junipero, or wherever we want. Since it's all programmable, you get to pick. Shangrila? Heaven? Hell (just visiting)? Meet your god for a deep chat?

Even if it was true what happens when some evil guy hides it and then starts torturing 5 billion souls in a simulated world that feel real pain. It would be a literal hell hiding on Earth.

 

[dirtpoorchris]

In order for you to be you and not a duplicate there HAS to be continuity. In your example they would be the same people a single entity if they were linked and intermingled thoughts, the moment that link severed they become 2 the original and duplicate and therefor different and at that instant divergent.

Your bodies cell replicate themselves and get rid of the old ones. I think it can be done if you transplanted the human body just right and kept all the brains entact until all the artificial is built around and then with it, while never turning the brain off.

 

[bongsaway]

Free premium porn for life?

 

[JacksinPA]

Free premium porn for life?

And a companion to go with it if you choose. It would be like filing a flight plan.