What if we could transfer our conscious into a computer?

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Don't laugh.
I am serious, think about it. At first it seems like sci-fi, and maybe in this era it is. But, if our minds are really just advance biological AIs then surely this should be possible.

This is part wishful think i admit, but think deeper.

This is something i wish to look at, but the conscious as a whole if i were to look upon it.

There are problems like emotions, how would they be replecated?
So, what do you think of this crazy idea?

Iain M. Banks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

This subject comes up often... I'm surprised it's not the topic of more science-fiction movies than The Matrix, etc.



Doctor Brackman approves of your mind-machine interface!

I'd like to keep a copy of mine on a computer because I like mine that much. But I wouldn't want to totally surrender it before my death!

I don't want people hacking my mind.

"Ghost in the Shell" deals with this subject a lot.

some jejune thoughts-

*i wouldn't want a straight transfer of my mind to another carrier [computer or what have you], i'd want only a copy of it transferred to another holder. thataways, if there is hardware failure i would not be up the creek sans paddle.
*i wonder what it would be like [carrying on from the first jejune thought] to have zillions of copies of my mind populating the universe. what would happen then? what if everybody else had the same idea? what then?
*carrying on from the 2nd jejune thought, let's just assume that each transferred copy of our mind progresses over time, unhindered by biological deterioration of wetware and liberated from wetware limitations overall- eventually the amount of stored wisdom would require upgrades in memory capacity, would this mean that each mind would eventually require so much storage space that it would exceed the amount of space available, given enough eons. if all such copied minds progressed anywhere along the same amount, the storage space available would run out much sooner. would this eventually cause wars among the various minds for monopoly of resources?

that's enough thinking for awhile, i'm tired

Last edited by auntblabby on 14 Jan 2013, 4:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

Frederik Pohl

Why transfer it? If it's being replicated, why not keep the original? Or make multiple copies. Then your minds can slowly merge into a hive-mind. Also also you take over the world or some such.

Heck, it's make reading ebooks way faster ether way.

You should check out Ray Kurzweil, particularly "The Singularity is Near" and "How to Create a Mind".

Not only is this not far-fetched, but highly probable within most of our lifetimes, provided our civilization does not collapse before hand. Emotions would not be a problem at all, the function just like all other brain processes, electro-chemical signals, and would be easy enough to simulate with adequate computational power.

The problem however is what exactly is consciousness? It is not likely something you can ever really pin down. How do I know that you for example are conscious? Unfortunately there is a certain amount of faith required.



Here you run in to the question of which, if any, of these consciousnesses are you?

It might be possible in principle. It is also possible that humans are NOT smart enough to figure out how to do it.

ruveyn

Those who say that this is "highly propable withnin our lifetime" seem to think the brain as a hardrive. This is not. Consciousness, personallity and memory (All brain founctions in fact.) is intimelly linked to the "hardware", so for "uploading" a consciouness you need to reproduce exactly the hardware in a simulation, by first making a scan of tha brain acurate to the molecular level, and then emulate it preciselly (Because with something as delicate as the brain you need perfect emulation if you don't want the copy to become crazy.) And accurate emulation need power, a lot of power, like 3Ghz for a measly snes: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/
And that's not even getting to the precise emulation of circuits, (Which you would need for the brain.) for wich even modern computers are not enough for the Pong game.

Even after all that it would still be only a copy of the brain, as the consciouness of the original will continue to be in a mortal body.

Speaking of body, do you really think that the brain alone would be enough? The brain is linked to the body and need the body to work, so you would need to upload and emulate ALL THE HUMAN BODY!! !

Edit:Thinking about it, the duplicate body would propably get old too.

Really should check out Pohl's classic Gateway/Heechee Saga--especially the last two books.

He describes an entire alien civilization that developed stored intelligences rather than computers (the massed minds) and explores how humans adapt the technology for their own uses.

I'd say it's more interesting than Bank's take because Pohl is dealing with a society much closer to our own... According to Pohl time/boredom is the biggest obstacle in interaction between stored intelligences and "meat people."

no thx I like my brain where it is

The human race is transferring its essence into the internet as we speak.
One day in the not too distant future we will have replicated our species neurologically into the servers of cyberspace.
Google will become Godggle!