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At best, a copy of you living in VR gets to live until the sun explodes. Which at least is better defined than "heaven".

stcredzero 13y ago
1) The sun does not explode. It just swells to a red giant. This happens quickly for a star, once the process starts, but it's still much longer than a human lifespan. 2) Presumes our intelligence is deemed valuable enough to devote those resources to.
JackFr 13y ago
Well, when you scratch the surface, it's not really any better defined than heaven. You're gonna have to spec out 'copy', 'you' and 'living'.
- TeMPOraL 13y ago
  We have some ideas on how to make "copy" work, and what "you" and "living" is. We also know that we can in principle achieve it by our own strength as a civilization. We can see the path from "here" to "there". Which seems much better defined than heaven.
arethuza 13y ago
Or a copy of you living in VR gets to be tortured endlessly until the sun explodes. Which at least is better defined than "hell". [Thanks to Messrs Banks, Stross and Vinge for that particular cheery thought].
sanoli 13y ago
and does it matter? I mean, since it's a copy, to your biological "you", it's just no different as if they put some other random person in VR and told you it was you in there. I find the 'upload your brain to a hard drive' thing silly unless they figure out how to have your biological consciousness seamlessly move to the VR, like it was taking some bus ride and ended up in this new place.
- sanswork 13y ago
  In the old mans war books they cover that by having the old and new bodies staring at each other while they move the consciousness. So one minute you're staring at a new body then you're staring at both then gradually the vision of the new body fades out and you're left staring at your old body. I think something similar is the only way you're going to get people to want to do this. Though whether or not that is possible is way beyond me.
  - tripzilch 13y ago
    Sounds like an idea. If I really had to. I would still have a similar problem with "teleporters" (of the Star Trek kind), though.

stcredzero 13y ago

1) The sun does not explode. It just swells to a red giant. This happens quickly for a star, once the process starts, but it's still much longer than a human lifespan. 2) Presumes our intelligence is deemed valuable enough to devote those resources to.

JackFr 13y ago

Well, when you scratch the surface, it's not really any better defined than heaven. You're gonna have to spec out 'copy', 'you' and 'living'.

TeMPOraL 13y ago
We have some ideas on how to make "copy" work, and what "you" and "living" is. We also know that we can in principle achieve it by our own strength as a civilization. We can see the path from "here" to "there". Which seems much better defined than heaven.

arethuza 13y ago

Or a copy of you living in VR gets to be tortured endlessly until the sun explodes. Which at least is better defined than "hell". [Thanks to Messrs Banks, Stross and Vinge for that particular cheery thought].

sanoli 13y ago

and does it matter? I mean, since it's a copy, to your biological "you", it's just no different as if they put some other random person in VR and told you it was you in there. I find the 'upload your brain to a hard drive' thing silly unless they figure out how to have your biological consciousness seamlessly move to the VR, like it was taking some bus ride and ended up in this new place.

sanswork 13y ago
In the old mans war books they cover that by having the old and new bodies staring at each other while they move the consciousness. So one minute you're staring at a new body then you're staring at both then gradually the vision of the new body fades out and you're left staring at your old body. I think something similar is the only way you're going to get people to want to do this. Though whether or not that is possible is way beyond me.
- tripzilch 13y ago
  Sounds like an idea. If I really had to. I would still have a similar problem with "teleporters" (of the Star Trek kind), though.