Quote from: Spaceman_Spiff_Original on April 10, 2019, 02:45:10 PM

Quote from: siggy_77 on April 10, 2019, 01:51:53 PM

Quote from: Phil_S on April 10, 2019, 01:21:35 PM

I have zero faith in cryopreservation.

I have zero faith in "uploading consciousness".

So, if you upload your consciousness... is it really 'you' at that point? Or is it just an exact copy of you, and you are actually dead ? I've actually been pondering this recently, and I can't get past the continuity of consciousness during the upload process, to believe the end result would still be me.

Yeah, that's one of the big questions right?

I guess part of the problem is that we (or at least I) don't have a clear view of what makes up a person/individual. I mean, we know about brains being made out of neurons, glial cells etc., but have much more issues seeing how that translates to more abstract higher-order concepts such as consciousness, character etc. .

This is actually one of my favorite conversations to have. I decided to study neuroscience from a young age because I was caught up in the idea of creating a computer program that could "upload your brain before you die," thereby allowing you to live forever. I was on an "extropians" e-mail list that was started coincidentally by Wei Dai (pre-bitcoin e-money guy) and wanted to learn all I could about longevity.

After my first neuroscience course during my junior year (you have 2 full years of prep before you're even allowed to touch neuroscience), I realized that this is an impossible feat, at least for centuries to come. The human brain is the most complex structure in the known universe. Our best computers can't even begin to touch what it is capable of performing.

After finishing my degree and going to grad school for neuroscience, I came to the conclusion that you're better off just keeping your brain alive inside a jar, placed in a cyborg body. Kind of like Robocop. Of course, entropy will always win, but we're much closer to being able to make this happen than replicating the brain digitally.

One thing that always pissed me off about Star Trek and the idea of "beaming"... Once you get beamed somewhere, you're dead! The old you is just disintegrated and the new you is just an exact replica of you. So yeah, who gives a shit if you can only make a replica of yourself. You're better off just having children, which are one half you, and then call it a day.