3 ms·

Immortality

by JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Immortality

jdpedrie 4y ago
But you're dead. Digital copy of you != you.
- philipkglass 4y ago
  It won't do anything to solve the dread-of-nonexistence problem. But a copy that behaves just like you is still useful if your motivation is something like "ensure that my line of scientific research continues" or "take care of my extended family."
  - ycombobreaker 4y ago
    But even if it's a copy of your essence, it's not a slave. Mortal-you has goals and family to care about. Mortal-you has been living and planning with the constraint of mortality for its entire life. Immortal-you will eventually develop different motivations.
    - mlyle 4y ago
      > Immortal-you will eventually develop different motivations. Yah, well, mortal-me also eventually develops different motivations. There's still continuity and connectedness. It's just fork(2).
- johndough 4y ago
  The digital copy can be kept alive long enough until we figure out how to download it back into a body again, at which point this is basically the ship of Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus Also some people might disagree with "digital copy of you != you". Personally, I do not care since it is close enough to immortality imho.
  - undersuit 4y ago
    I do care about the fleshy me, but maybe the digital me could figure out a way for fleshy me to not die and fix my bum knee for sentimental reasons.
- anonymoushn 4y ago
  How are you certain that you can survive a night's sleep?
batch12 4y ago
To be fair, it's not you that becomes immortal, just your copy. From your perspective, you still die.
- JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  But not today! And consider: if I can upload, perhaps I can download. Perhaps my digital copy can live life 'faster'? In that case I live 1000 lives digitally and download that. Now I'm essentially immortal, in my physical body, because I've lived for millennia! At the very, very least its no worse than living this one life and dying anyway.
  - batch12 4y ago
    It isn't you living those lives though. What is the difference between this and downloading someone else's memories?
    - undersuit 4y ago
      Why isn't it me? Upload at night, sleep, download in the morning the self that has been running at 1000x speed in the cloud.
      - batch12 4y ago
        It isn't you because the experiences didn't happen and weren't actually observed by you. They'd be implants of false memories at best. That would give the illusion of experience but that's all. Definately nowhere near immortality. This is closer to a dream or delusion.
        undersuit 4y ago
        We're talking about uploading our consciousness into a digital realm and then downloading the resulting consciousness back into a brain. Ignoring that we have no way to do that right now, there is nothing that says we can't. It would not be a dream any more than yesterday wasn't a dream.

Immortality

jdpedrie 4y ago

But you're dead. Digital copy of you != you.

philipkglass 4y ago
It won't do anything to solve the dread-of-nonexistence problem. But a copy that behaves just like you is still useful if your motivation is something like "ensure that my line of scientific research continues" or "take care of my extended family."
- ycombobreaker 4y ago
  But even if it's a copy of your essence, it's not a slave. Mortal-you has goals and family to care about. Mortal-you has been living and planning with the constraint of mortality for its entire life. Immortal-you will eventually develop different motivations.
  - mlyle 4y ago
    > Immortal-you will eventually develop different motivations. Yah, well, mortal-me also eventually develops different motivations. There's still continuity and connectedness. It's just fork(2).
johndough 4y ago
The digital copy can be kept alive long enough until we figure out how to download it back into a body again, at which point this is basically the ship of Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus Also some people might disagree with "digital copy of you != you". Personally, I do not care since it is close enough to immortality imho.
- undersuit 4y ago
  I do care about the fleshy me, but maybe the digital me could figure out a way for fleshy me to not die and fix my bum knee for sentimental reasons.
anonymoushn 4y ago
How are you certain that you can survive a night's sleep?

batch12 4y ago

To be fair, it's not you that becomes immortal, just your copy. From your perspective, you still die.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago
But not today! And consider: if I can upload, perhaps I can download. Perhaps my digital copy can live life 'faster'? In that case I live 1000 lives digitally and download that. Now I'm essentially immortal, in my physical body, because I've lived for millennia! At the very, very least its no worse than living this one life and dying anyway.
- batch12 4y ago
  It isn't you living those lives though. What is the difference between this and downloading someone else's memories?
  - undersuit 4y ago
    Why isn't it me? Upload at night, sleep, download in the morning the self that has been running at 1000x speed in the cloud.
    - batch12 4y ago
      It isn't you because the experiences didn't happen and weren't actually observed by you. They'd be implants of false memories at best. That would give the illusion of experience but that's all. Definately nowhere near immortality. This is closer to a dream or delusion.
      - undersuit 4y ago
        We're talking about uploading our consciousness into a digital realm and then downloading the resulting consciousness back into a brain. Ignoring that we have no way to do that right now, there is nothing that says we can't. It would not be a dream any more than yesterday wasn't a dream.