X-Message-Number: 7881
Date:  Mon, 17 Mar 97 22:50:23 
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: More Uploading

Questions have been raised, in regard to uploading, of whether a 
"simulation" of a person would have consciousness, feeling, etc. 
If a fancy computer program of the future could convincingly imitate 
a person (a conscious being with feeling) would it too be a conscious 
being with feeling, and specifically, a continuer of the person it 
was imitating? I don't have any ironclad-proven answer--and I don't 
think anyone else does either. But I'm inclined to think that
feeling, consciousness, and even "continuing" some specific
person, do not require our peculiar wetware but could probably be 
developed in other computational substrates too.

Thomas Donaldson raises the issue that brain neurons are able to grow
new connections and otherwise undergo physical changes over time.
This is something computers--today's at least--don't do, and 
moreover, a device that did would be contrary to the basic philosophy 
behind computers as they have developed. In fact, if understanding
serves right, there was one early computer, the ENIAC, that required
physically plugging in cords on the back to program it! If you wanted 
to compute a trigonometric function, say, you had to arrange the 
cords one way; for a square root, another way, etc. But this was 
obsoleted by the stored program concept--you did in software what 
formerly required physical modifications to the hardware. To me it 
seems likely too, that the effects of what the brain is doing 
physically can eventually be modeled in software (very much advanced 
from our level of course, along with the hardware that would run it!) 
to obviate the need for the physical changes.

Some questions that can be raised are (1) whether a computer of
the future will be powerful enough to carry out an emulation of the 
brain in pure software as I've indicated, (2) if so, whether it can 
do it in realtime or better, and (3) whether such an emulation, at 
whatever speed, will be made so as to have "real" feeling or
emotion. My gut feeling is a "yes" to all three.
In particular I don't think there's anything unique 
about brain tissue that makes it able to support consciousness and 
feeling, where other highly-organized forms of matter must invariably 
fail. (And there are arguments from physics to support my position.)
But this is something that will likely be argued loud and long (as it has
been already). It's an interesting question. And someday a software-
persona may be arguing that "of course, *real* feeling is not possible
to those crude biological devices though they can sometimes begin to
suggest it ...":-)

Parting thought: the ENIAC became operational in 1946, just 51 
years ago. We've come a long way in computers since then, but we 
have a long way to go before any serious prospect of being able
to upload ourselves could develop. Another 51 years?

Mike Perry

http://www.alcor.org 


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