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I think I rather be uploaded to a virtual reality environment with the ability to download to humanoid robots almost identical to the human body such that the

I think I rather be uploaded to a virtual reality environment with the ability to download to humanoid robots almost identical to the human body such that the difference in perception is almost negligible. The robots should be identical to the human body at least skin deep. Our skin could be a synthetic material very close to the real thing. We will need none of the organs that currently keep us alive.

joering2 15y ago
thats very interesting. I dont know what you mean by "rather be uploaded" (I guess you mean your conscious, which sounds just too much of a science-fiction to me since AFAIK we dont exactly know what makes us us and makes us aware we are we) but you made me think about other possibility: instead of stealing someones 100% matching DNAs body, why not to transplant your brain into the machine? Of course this is is still pure science fiction but if we could overcome all difficulties, I could see a robot body totally controlled by your brain. It would be some sort of control-by-wire thing. Your brain sends a signal to lift an arm, computer attached to it recognizes it and replace it with gauged signal that is being sent to your arm. If we could only know how to mimic signals that lets us see or hear or smell ([1] for example) we could have a fully working mechanical body. Then the only risk of dying would be brain injury or disease; nothing else could kill you. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_prosthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_prosthesis ok, eot for me. ok hang on: second though: I am not sure if I would gave up on a please of fng for an eternity without it :) edit: so it boils down to question: how long can brain live, given we provide it perfect conditions (lets say: pure perfectly controlled air, all the vitamins it needs in regulated doses, etc etc)
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  I was thinking more around the lines of converting the brain connections to software i.e. Scanning the brain and creating a software representation of it. Then put it in a brain simulator (This is a very simplistic example, it will be far more complicated than this). If we can do this then we should be able to replicate everything else, touch, smell, taste. Essentially we would become an artificial intelligent being with the potential to live forever.
  - jules 15y ago
    How would you propose we do this? Suppose we could scan the state of your brain exactly and transfer it to a simulation on a computer. How would we now transfer your consciousness to the simulation? It seems to me that rather than making you live forever you've made a clone of you live forever. This relates to a basic unsolved question: how does consciousness work?
    - felipemnoa 15y ago
      I honestly have no idea. I believe we will figure it out eventually. The clone will be you, and you will be the clone. It will be like going to sleep and waking up in the virtual reality environment. From the clones perspective it will feel like the original you since it has all the memories of the original up to the point before you went to sleep. You just have to make sure that the original you is destroyed if and only if the virtual you is created successfully and with no corruptions. Otherwise there might be problems between the real you and the clone. Side note: I believe there was an episode in Star Trek where something like this would happen. Star Trek made a treaty with an alien race to allow them to visit their planet via teleportation over huge distances. The thing is that they would not really teleport the person but rather they would create an exact clone at the destination and destroy the original.
      - jules 15y ago
        > It will be like going to sleep and waking up in the virtual reality environment. The question is: who will be waking up? Basically the same issue is with a hypothetical teleporter. To teleport you from here to somewhere else we scan all the atoms in your body and digitize that information. Now we send the data over the internet to another place on earth. We rebuild you there. At the same moment that we use a defibrillator to put life into the new you, we shoot the old you in the head with a gun. So you'd step into such a teleporter? I haven't seen a convincing answer to these questions of consciousness/soul/identity. Perhaps there really is no difference between going to sleep and dying, it's just that in the former instance the old body is reused for new identity. Perhaps there is no persistent identity at all; in every moment in time there is a single separate identity. Perhaps time itself is an illusion: perhaps the universe is just one single snapshot in time. There are so many possibilities and I have no idea how one would even start to formulate a testable hypothesis. Does anyone have a recommendation for reading more about this topic?

joering2 15y ago

thats very interesting. I dont know what you mean by "rather be uploaded" (I guess you mean your conscious, which sounds just too much of a science-fiction to me since AFAIK we dont exactly know what makes us us and makes us aware we are we) but you made me think about other possibility: instead of stealing someones 100% matching DNAs body, why not to transplant your brain into the machine? Of course this is is still pure science fiction but if we could overcome all difficulties, I could see a robot body totally controlled by your brain. It would be some sort of control-by-wire thing. Your brain sends a signal to lift an arm, computer attached to it recognizes it and replace it with gauged signal that is being sent to your arm. If we could only know how to mimic signals that lets us see or hear or smell ([1] for example) we could have a fully working mechanical body. Then the only risk of dying would be brain injury or disease; nothing else could kill you. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_prosthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocular_prosthesis ok, eot for me. ok hang on: second though: I am not sure if I would gave up on a please of fng for an eternity without it :) edit: so it boils down to question: how long can brain live, given we provide it perfect conditions (lets say: pure perfectly controlled air, all the vitamins it needs in regulated doses, etc etc)

felipemnoa 15y ago
I was thinking more around the lines of converting the brain connections to software i.e. Scanning the brain and creating a software representation of it. Then put it in a brain simulator (This is a very simplistic example, it will be far more complicated than this). If we can do this then we should be able to replicate everything else, touch, smell, taste. Essentially we would become an artificial intelligent being with the potential to live forever.
- jules 15y ago
  How would you propose we do this? Suppose we could scan the state of your brain exactly and transfer it to a simulation on a computer. How would we now transfer your consciousness to the simulation? It seems to me that rather than making you live forever you've made a clone of you live forever. This relates to a basic unsolved question: how does consciousness work?
  - felipemnoa 15y ago
    I honestly have no idea. I believe we will figure it out eventually. The clone will be you, and you will be the clone. It will be like going to sleep and waking up in the virtual reality environment. From the clones perspective it will feel like the original you since it has all the memories of the original up to the point before you went to sleep. You just have to make sure that the original you is destroyed if and only if the virtual you is created successfully and with no corruptions. Otherwise there might be problems between the real you and the clone. Side note: I believe there was an episode in Star Trek where something like this would happen. Star Trek made a treaty with an alien race to allow them to visit their planet via teleportation over huge distances. The thing is that they would not really teleport the person but rather they would create an exact clone at the destination and destroy the original.
    - jules 15y ago
      > It will be like going to sleep and waking up in the virtual reality environment. The question is: who will be waking up? Basically the same issue is with a hypothetical teleporter. To teleport you from here to somewhere else we scan all the atoms in your body and digitize that information. Now we send the data over the internet to another place on earth. We rebuild you there. At the same moment that we use a defibrillator to put life into the new you, we shoot the old you in the head with a gun. So you'd step into such a teleporter? I haven't seen a convincing answer to these questions of consciousness/soul/identity. Perhaps there really is no difference between going to sleep and dying, it's just that in the former instance the old body is reused for new identity. Perhaps there is no persistent identity at all; in every moment in time there is a single separate identity. Perhaps time itself is an illusion: perhaps the universe is just one single snapshot in time. There are so many possibilities and I have no idea how one would even start to formulate a testable hypothesis. Does anyone have a recommendation for reading more about this topic?