[geeks] [rescue] consciousness immortality [was: Sun Sparcstation 20 hard disks]

[gsm at mendelson.com]

On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 02:31:52AM -0400, Mouse wrote:
>
>Oh, if your target substrate is different technology from the input's,
>then yes, it is easy to tell which is "the original".  When talking
>about distinguishing copies from originals, I've been assuming that the
>destination body is basically identical to the source body.

I think the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle applies here. The existance
of a second copy would affect the first. Just knowing there is another of
you, especially if it meant YOUR death would be a big change emotionally.

The trick behind the Star Trek transporter is that you are conditioned to
believe you go in one side and YOU come out the other. If it were realized
that you were being scanned and an infinte number of you were capable of
being created, a fresh copy stored digitally for later retrieval, or that
you were killed by scan, with the hope (but not 100% certainty) that you
would be recreated at the other end, you would look at them differently.

Yes I understand that Star Trek has made it clear that a transporter could
only hold a pattern for 70 or so years, and once used it was gone, but could
someone like the 25th century Steve Jobs afford to buy a permanent pattern 
buffer? Could he even have his defective pancreas edited out and replaced with 
a good one?

After all he did the 20th century equivalent with Marmalade Skies and 
the transplant list.

Or just keep re-creating himself, like the character in the Schwarzenegger 
movie (I forget the name, but it was the one with clones).

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Making your enemy reliant on software you support is the best revenge.