General Interest > Open Free for All
Transhumanism & Nanotechnology
teachback:
Uploading (sometimes called "mind uploading") is the hypothetical process of transferring a mind from a biological brain to a computer. The idea is that by scanning the synaptic structure of a brain, we could implement the same computations on a computer that would normally take place in the brain. If you think the essence of yourself is information -- your memories, values, attitudes and emotions --rather than the gray, cheesy lump inside your skull, then you might view your identity as being preserved in this process. The scanning could be accomplished by means of nanotechnology. Uploading should work for cryonics patients provided their brains are frozen in a sufficiently intact state.
Uploads could live in an artificial reality (i.e. constructed computer simulated environment). An option would be to have robot bodies and sensors so they can resume their lives in physical reality. The subjective time of uploads would depend on how fast the computers are on which they are running. Uploads could be distributed over vast computer networks and they could make frequent backup copies of themselves. This should make it possible for uploads indefinite life spans. Uploads could subsist on a very small amount of resources compared to a biological human, since they don't need physical food or shelter or transportation. Uploads could reproduce extremely quickly (simply by making copies of themselves). This implies that resources could quickly become scarce unless reproduction is limited.
BuzzKill:
I don't myself foresee us ever making humans into robots; however we are fast approaching the day when we can make robots human.
The vital ingredients seems to be memories and emotions. In such Sci Fi classics as Blade Runner, and I Robot, this has been accomplished.
I recall reading a Sci Fi story once called Sweet Dreams Melissa. A young girl had had a nervous break down and in her dreams she had nightmares about numbers. Turned out, she was a computer that had been programmed with memories and emotions. Upon learning the truth she had a melt down. I guess you might say her hard drive crashed. It was sad, b/c the reader had come to empathize with the young girl.
Outside of Biblical prophecy, Sci Fi is the best indicator of what the future holds.
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---
Outside of Biblical prophecy, Sci Fi is the best indicator of what the future holds."
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Pass me some of that angel dust you're smoking....
Antigen:
--- Quote ---On 2005-02-18 08:45:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
--- Quote ---
Outside of Biblical prophecy, Sci Fi is the best indicator of what the future holds."
--- End quote ---
Pass me some of that angel dust you're smoking...."
--- End quote ---
Inside of Biblical prophecey it's too dark to read.
Seriously, though. Jules Verne, considered by many to be the father of the sci-fi genre, was spot on about a lot of things.
for nothing can keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence.
--Thomas Jefferson
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Antigen:
--- Quote ---On 2005-02-18 08:45:00, Anonymous wrote:
"
--- Quote ---
Outside of Biblical prophecy, Sci Fi is the best indicator of what the future holds."
--- End quote ---
Pass me some of that angel dust you're smoking...."
--- End quote ---
Inside of Biblical prophecy it's too dark to read.
Seriously, though. Jules Verne got a lot of things right and some things wrong. We do have manned space travel, but they don't line the cabins w/ red velvet and serve martinis. It's stylised, but based on actual scientific theory.
History gives us a kind of chart, and we dare not surrender even a small rushlight in the darkness. The hasty reformer who does not remember the past will find himself condemned to repeat it.
--John Buchan
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