Thank you! ^^
You think you would be able to tell the difference? If I had the choice, of course, I would live the entire life just to experience all of the stages of it and to be able to say that I've lived the full lifetime on Earth.
Ahaha a centenarian? :D Who would want that anyway? I think everyone would love to be at their prime. No? Not just that, probably enhancing themselves too.
Well I suppose we kind of have to assume "I" wouldn't be able to tell the difference. But what is "I?" What is the nature of the essence of self?
I think that there are two things that "I" means. When I say it to you, when you hear me say "I," you think, "lem." You think of all the personality traits and possibly any hints of physical description you may have observed or conjectured about me. You think of memories you've formed with or about me, and all that sort of thing. All of that is "lem" to you.
But what is "I" to me? "I" to ourselves is something completely different; it is our self; our being; it is not even the lens through which we view reality; it is the whatever-it-is that is doing the viewing itself. A soul? Who knows? When we say "I," we are talking about a very different thing entirely than when we hear "I" from someone else. None of us will ever know another's self. It is so foreign and inaccessible to us that we cannot even be sure it exists. We only trust that because we are aware, that others are too.
So, when I upload my brain, where does my self go? Does it continue in my body and die with it, and there is a brand new self created which "I" will never experience? Is it copied and now there are two selves somehow, distinct from each other? Either way, the original dies. I can't imagine a way that my same self could make it to the new place in one piece, without leaving someself behind, to die.... alone; scared; devastated, and so, so envious of otherself's newfound eternal life.
There is another problem, too. Up until now, we've just sort of taken for granted that the copies have selves like us. Maybe they don't... and that is the darkest part of this whole question. I believe that one day we will most certainly have the technical capability to make everyone "live" forever in digital form, but we have to consider the possibility that it will only be a surface-level emulation. We have to acknowledge the chance we are taking: that by jumping headfirst into this new world of technical immortality, we are committing suicide of the species.
Perhaps when we are done, "we" will learn, "we" will explore, "we" will build... but there will be no selves left to perceive any of it. Instead, we will become a horde of lifeless self-replicating data mining algorithms; emulating curiosity and all of our human emotions, but never truly experiencing them.
Well that's easy then, right? Just ask some of these new volunteer cloud-consciousness-beings if they feel alive. Of course they'll tell you "Yes, of course; I feel better than ever! I'm just light as a feather, but I am every bit my same self, trust me. It's important to me that you trust me. I feel alive.... you've got to trust me. Please?"
Their onscreen facial features will fall into a disappointed and deeply disturbed look. Maybe their emulation will even be sophisticated enough to emulate an internal identity crisis. They might even get offended at us for asking such a thing. Our scientists will smile and nod and reassure them. They'll trust that they made the right observations and truly cracked the question of consciousness for good.
But what if they were wrong?
What the hell lem! This should be rewarded as a proper post! Awesomeness :)
How I wish it was possible to jump bodies and learn about how others experience themselves. That would be a truly marvelous thing to witness, feel and grasp. It would not only make us appreciate others more, I think it would open our eyes about our own uniquness. We sometimes are so cruel to ourselves which stems from really not being able to grok ourselves fully. To grok what we are and how we are.
All living things die. We would end one way or another. Probably by exhausting our recourses and killing our planet if not each other first. We cannot be sure there is an afterlife. Some believe it exists in form of Heaven or Hell, but what if technology provides us with the third option? Our personal heaven and hell until some catastrophic event or we will get so bored we wish to end it all.
Maybe we are actually not meant to live past our human lifetimes. Maybe nothing really matters. So why not? Maybe when we die, the lights are shut off and there is no me or you any longer. So yes, the original self will die. I think for sure we can say that. Perhaps we will be different as we continue on, not really our human selves, but new creatures entirely. Call it evolution or freakshow.
Will they really live or feel alive? Will they just emulate us? That would really suck if we could not crack that nut and be able to tell the difference that we are getting cheated by our own creations. Now that is a scary prospect. Freakshow it is then? :D
Well look. I have this one self and it is the only one of which I can be absolutely 100% certain... but as far as I know there are others like me... billions of them... and here we are, the only ones for who knows how far? Maybe there are others, millions of light-years away, today. Maybe we are the only ones in the Universe at this moment. It doesn't really matter anyway. Even if we are, I really believe that all of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. Whole planets, races, societies and cultures will be born and pass away before or after we could ever have known anything about them. I don't honestly believe we will ever make contact with them. Not as our selves. There is just not enough time.
But if we are not the only ones, or if we will not remain the only ones, that means that there are others out there.... and they are curious like us. They will look for us; maybe they already are. You know what would be so cool?
What would be so cool is if even if we didn't go on as our selves, even if we were just emulations... imagine if they could find us, and experience us... as their selves.
That would be something awesome.
What are the odds that we are completely alone? So many stars and galaxies out there. We can't be alone. That would be a terrible waste of space?
Out of reach like you said. Distance and time. Our mortal time.
It would be something awesome indeed. So we have to go to them somehow, even if it means we would be just ghosts of who we once were, so at least they can learn about us the aliens as them themselves.
Ah and somehow we humans always dreamed about exploring the stars and if the only way to do that is by becoming something else since we are dying anyway, why not?
Agreed! So, whatever it means for us, let's do this uploading thing... for them. ^_^
I'm so renaming myself Acid2.0 when that happens.