Singularities and Simulacra

I was just reading this article...

[Uploading the Mind for Extended Space Exploration - Is It Possible?]

And it brought to my mind a thought that I have never really heard mentioned when discussing the dilemma of going from a biological substrate to a more technological one. For those that are unfamiliar with this issue I'll go through a quick refresher..

Think of porting your brain into a computer as being exactly like moving a file from one computer to another. The illusion is in the movement, in reality what is actually occurring is that the file is being copied to another location and the original is destroyed.

This is also known as a simulacrum (A copy without an original) - [Fun movie trivia! : In the Original Matrix Movie, the book that Neo pulls off the bookshelf is called, "Simulacra and Simulacrum" by Jean Baudrillard]

It's a very interesting book if anyone I know wants to borrow it, just let me know!

Anyways, so the issue at hand is that what fun is it being the original brain when it's your duplicate that gets to run around and do all the exciting things.

But there is a solution that I have yet to hear from anyone... Within the first two paragraphs of that article we find the fault in the argument that leads us down the path of being limited by the necessity to duplicate, but also we find the solution.

"Athena Andreadis recently wrote an article on why we can't be uploaded, explaining how any ghosts in the machine would just be copies. But we ask the more important question: is that a problem?"

"...the mind isn't a program that can be copied out onto upgraded hardware. It's an emergent effect of a hundred billion neurons, uncountable connections, a bath of chemicals and all sorts of input from our body. Besides, the very word "copy" shows that even if you could do it, you wouldn't benefit - since the copy can exist at the same time, it has to be someone else."

The solution is that instead of simply copying the mind and destroying the original, we supply the current brain with the means of interacting with an electronic brain, and then slowly over time we would begin to add more to the electronic brain and use the electronic brain for things we would have originally used our biological brain for.

Think of it as slowly moving into a new home.

Some people might argue that this is simply copying at a slower rate, thus we are still left with the same problem of loosing the original, but I don't believe this is the case.

The differences between your brain now and your brain a year ago is the memories that have been created over that time. So if the rate of transition into your digital brain is slow enough, you would have the experience of that change within your memory.

Anyways, I'm trying to rush writing this because I'm about to go swimming, so I hope anyone that's found this interesting and has questions or ideas will post in the comments and maybe we can get a nice healthy discussion going!

Choice.

I remember when I found myself inside a Navy recruiting office a little less than 10 years ago. They wanted to know why I didn't want to join the Navy even though apparently my test scores could get me anywhere. I don't remember what I told them, but I do remember what I was thinking about.

I didn't want to devote 4 years to the Navy because to me making that decision would mean sacrificing all the memories and experiences that could have occurred had I not joined.

So I made a choice in my life to not join the Navy and instead embarked on an entirely different course, all because of one decision.

I feel like life is all about the decisions we do or don't make. But sometimes I wish I could see the world from every branch I didn't take.

But that is the nature of life as we perceive it. It is our choices that define who we are.

An important note on the coming Singularity.. My thoughts on our future.

I've stumbled upon this thought numerous times throughout the years, the question of the flying car. It is a dream that many people have desired and wished for, for quite some time... yet there is no mass produced flying car today, no skyways and other things. But that can't be, right? As far as I remember of my youth we were told that we'd have flying cars in and around the year 2000, but now it's 2010 and it still hasn't arrived.

The whole point to this ramble is that we were told that we'd have the flying car in the year 2000, so what did we do? We all sat around and waited for it to appear...

We should have been told that we could have flying cars in the next 20 years if we do something about it.

This is an important thing for futurologists to take into account when discussing the singularity.

It's good to get everyone's imaginations running towards the future, but if we don't remind everyone that we have to then build on that and take action, we'll all just be waiting for it to happen.

Awesome.