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However brain simulation isn't on a par with life extension. with brain simulation you still die. You're just replaced by something extremely similar to you wit

However brain simulation isn't on a par with life extension. with brain simulation you still die. You're just replaced by something extremely similar to you with all your memories. There's a distinct break in continuity. At that point i can just create clones of my consciousness, the original consciousness does not want to stop existing.

messe 5y ago
It depends on what you consider to be you, and whether continuity of consciousness is important to you personally.
benlivengood 5y ago
> You're just replaced by something extremely similar to you with all your memories. That happens every night I go to sleep and a fair portion of my atoms get swapped out by normal metabolic processes. My neural network changes as I'm unconscious or dream. I don't even remember all my dreams, but wake up with new thoughts/ideas sometimes. We're always some delta from ourselves the previous day. I'm very different from the me of 10 years ago. The jump to a brain simulation may be a large change, but I could also tweak the things that didn't feel quite right or match with what I used to be like.
- shard 5y ago
  The difference is that you cannot meet face to face with the delta you from before you went to sleep, thus all rights and privileges reside within one continuous body through time. It depends if you are comfortable with having an extremely similar copy or multiple extremely similar copies inherit all your rights and privileges.
  - benlivengood 5y ago
    Legal rights would probably be an AND situation rather than an OR, or maybe some sort of majority-rule situation.
    - shard 5y ago
      That could get complicated fast. Imagine ten thousand copies of your brain, all with different ages, experiences, and opinions, deciding what to do with your money, how to educate your children, what kind of relationship you want with your spouse.
      - benlivengood 5y ago
        Romance could get complicated for monogamous people. Polyamorous partners would negotiate new agreements about duplicates. Marriage as an institution would probably dissolve due to impracticality; it would be equivalent to a series of divorces and remarriages with each duplication, and two-partners-per-marriage would be a weird constraint. Resource constraints are certainly an issue; the fairest way seems like pre-allocating a subset of resources to each duplicate who in turn can do the same. Societal restrictions on creating a duplicate with too few resources would prevent effective slavery or abject poverty.
SiVal 5y ago
Scenario 1: You go to sleep, they copy the info, you wake up in a new, young body. "Wow! This is great. When this body gets ten years older, I want to do that again!" They turn off the old body as you do your happy dance. Scenario 2: Same as 1, wake up in new body, etc. But they also wake up the old body. "Hey, I thought I was going to be in a new body!" They point at the young "you" doing a happy dance. "We just wanted to show you that it worked. Congratulations. Now lie back so we can deactivate you." The other one stops his happy dance: "Let's forget about that update ten years from now."
piercebot 5y ago
This idea is explored in Walkaway: A Novel, by Corey Doctorow. If you enjoy reading fiction, I highly recommend it!
- vvillena 5y ago
  It's also a big concept in the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds.

messe 5y ago

It depends on what you consider to be you, and whether continuity of consciousness is important to you personally.

benlivengood 5y ago

> You're just replaced by something extremely similar to you with all your memories. That happens every night I go to sleep and a fair portion of my atoms get swapped out by normal metabolic processes. My neural network changes as I'm unconscious or dream. I don't even remember all my dreams, but wake up with new thoughts/ideas sometimes. We're always some delta from ourselves the previous day. I'm very different from the me of 10 years ago. The jump to a brain simulation may be a large change, but I could also tweak the things that didn't feel quite right or match with what I used to be like.

shard 5y ago
The difference is that you cannot meet face to face with the delta you from before you went to sleep, thus all rights and privileges reside within one continuous body through time. It depends if you are comfortable with having an extremely similar copy or multiple extremely similar copies inherit all your rights and privileges.
- benlivengood 5y ago
  Legal rights would probably be an AND situation rather than an OR, or maybe some sort of majority-rule situation.
  - shard 5y ago
    That could get complicated fast. Imagine ten thousand copies of your brain, all with different ages, experiences, and opinions, deciding what to do with your money, how to educate your children, what kind of relationship you want with your spouse.
    - benlivengood 5y ago
      Romance could get complicated for monogamous people. Polyamorous partners would negotiate new agreements about duplicates. Marriage as an institution would probably dissolve due to impracticality; it would be equivalent to a series of divorces and remarriages with each duplication, and two-partners-per-marriage would be a weird constraint. Resource constraints are certainly an issue; the fairest way seems like pre-allocating a subset of resources to each duplicate who in turn can do the same. Societal restrictions on creating a duplicate with too few resources would prevent effective slavery or abject poverty.

SiVal 5y ago

Scenario 1: You go to sleep, they copy the info, you wake up in a new, young body. "Wow! This is great. When this body gets ten years older, I want to do that again!" They turn off the old body as you do your happy dance. Scenario 2: Same as 1, wake up in new body, etc. But they also wake up the old body. "Hey, I thought I was going to be in a new body!" They point at the young "you" doing a happy dance. "We just wanted to show you that it worked. Congratulations. Now lie back so we can deactivate you." The other one stops his happy dance: "Let's forget about that update ten years from now."

piercebot 5y ago

This idea is explored in Walkaway: A Novel, by Corey Doctorow. If you enjoy reading fiction, I highly recommend it!

vvillena 5y ago
It's also a big concept in the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds.