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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7881