Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2003 15:02:52 -0500
From: James Jordan 
Subject: Re: (urth) Duh! Part 2.

At 08:52 AM 9/7/2003, Crush wrote:
>Roy,
>Would you be willing to undergo surgery if you were told that you would not
>survive the operation "but this little boy here will be receiving all your
>memories" (like Thecla did with Severian only without Sev's memories)?

I'm not Roy, but my understanding of what is being suggested is that 
consciousness, not memories, would be downloaded.


>Mantis,
>I reeeally like that name tag on a dog analogy. It perfectly expresses the
>difference between simulated and human consciousness, and supports my
>personal reasons for believing that computer simulation programs will never
>be truely conscious. That fact that we (generally) would presume that a
>concious program would have no problem with being downloaded to a second
>server and the copy on the first server destroyed shows that we all
>recognize the difference.

This is also the problem with reincarnation/metempsychosis. This 
transference is soul is nothing different than if an animal at my decaying 
body and my body transferred into him. There's nothing of what makes me ME 
left. The difference between reincarnation and personal annihiliation is 
merely a sleight-of-hand.

Nutria


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