World's only Immortal being.

[Max™]

This is actually the main reason why I believe that a so-called transfer of consciousness would only be creating a copy.

Now here's the paradox- if you were to slowly transition your brain from wetware to hardware, would that actually produce something is truly you? The end result would be the same more or less, but that would seemingly be a more likely candidate for preserving the self.

Well, if you inserted sets of nanomachines that went about replacing neurons with hardware a little bit at a time, you shouldn't notice the change at all, neurons die, get rewired, etc, all the time.

After they were done though, you would have a cyber-brain containing your awareness.

Transferring it from there to another would be interesting, but if you were to upload your awareness into a cyber brain, then swap back into your organic brain, would you still be you?


If the information comprising your awareness were replicated perfectly, you would be unable to prove that you weren't you, which is an interesting result.

I personally think the continuously aware during a neuron by neuron replacement method would be the best option, but that is just due to uncertainty that I would be able to actually maintain continuity of myself during a destructive transfer.

We should be able to test this with lab rats and such before too long, I'd think.

[Tristam]

We should be able to test this with lab rats and such before too long, I'd think.

There are about a gajillion reasons you can't do this, one being that memory is encoded and regulated entirely by cells, and the physical properties of those cells and their subcellular dynamics are instrumental not just for developing connections but regulating how strong/weak they are. If you had a material that wasn't a cell, whatever functional unit you had wouldn't be integrating signals properly and would be misfiring constantly.

Also, brains aren't binary, the information storage is nowhere near as simple as that for computers. Cells themselves may be "trinary", but the functional unit of memory storage is not the cell, it's (probably) the synapse.

[Max™]

I thought it was implied that you'd need a quantum computing system to replicate awareness, but I guess I should have stated that.

[Jotaru]

If the information comprising your awareness were replicated perfectly, you would be unable to prove that you weren't you, which is an interesting result.

I've had this thought experiment a few times in the past few months or so, and the result I always come up with is that I just don't know how I feel.

'Perfect' Clones (Not clone breeding like we do now with sheep and whatnot) Yeah, its not 'you'. You're directly copying yourself, killing yourself, and the other just THINKS its you (because it has all your memories, emotions, etc)

Teleportation: I feel the same way here. You're making a perfect copy to the point where it can't differentiate sense-of-self (it will be 100% sure its you, so no real way to test this...)... but your main consciousness is being destroyed. How do I know that I'm not just dying while a replica is made?

So, that leads me to my next thought.. for all we know, we 'die' when we go to sleep, and a brand new consciousness is formed overnight, and given to us to control in the morning... however, nobody really fears going to sleep at night. Nobody fears that the 'tomorrow' you won't be the same as the 'current' you...

This all just leaves me with a resounding 'I dont know' feeling about all of it.

[Max™]

That's why the incremental replacement of the hardware is what I'm betting on.

Imagine swapping a small enough piece of your computer that it wouldn't even cause a frame rate stutter while playing Crysis on max settings, then repeat it til it's a completely altered set of hardware running the exact same program (not merely a copy) as the original version was.

[Jotaru]

Injection of nanomachines as neuron replacements for when the brain rewires sounds like a solid solution to me

[Darus Grey]

So, that leads me to my next thought.. for all we know, we 'die' when we go to sleep, and a brand new consciousness is formed overnight, and given to us to control in the morning... however, nobody really fears going to sleep at night. Nobody fears that the 'tomorrow' you won't be the same as the 'current' you...

This all just leaves me with a resounding 'I dont know' feeling about all of it.

You had it right up till here, this is a common mistake due to the professional use of consciousness mixing with the colloquial use.

Consciousness is a constant stream of awareness that is never interrupted until the moment you die, if someone "knocks you unconscious", you are in-fact still conscious, same with sleeping. The colloquial use of losing consciousness is synonimous with black-outs, when the reality is you're are your highest state of consciousness well sleeping.

Your consciousness would be interrupted by teleportation, and even by being resuscitated under the right conditions...

"You" do not die when you sleep however.

And yes, Max's idea would likely work, like I said, consciousness is a stream, and as long as you don't interrupt it, you could potentially migrate to a fully hardware brain/body well maintaining your original awareness.

[Pirian]

Is it really you or just another "you" that has the memory of making the transition?

[Kavian_V3]

Cool story bro

[Max™]

Well, naturally it isn't "my" idea per se, just the most likely method I've heard of to preserve a continuity of awareness.

[Kyreth]

Theoretically, you could preserve the original self by using excess capacity to contain it in one part of the mind, replace the other, shunt the original "data" to the replaced part, and then repeat the process. Voila, original self, new mind to store it in.

Don't they say we actually have a decent amount of our brains that don't even get used?

[Max™]

We use it all or evolution would discard it over time.

We only use a given percent at any one time, though.

Using it all would be like a massive epileptic seizure.

[Tristam]

Theoretically, you could preserve the original self by using excess capacity to contain it in one part of the mind, replace the other, shunt the original "data" to the replaced part, and then repeat the process. Voila, original self, new mind to store it in.

Don't they say we actually have a decent amount of our brains that don't even get used?

Brains don't work that way though, the context is important, if you moved one neuron elsewhere in the brain, it would probably die. If you moved a neuron outside of the brain, it would immediately change and almost certainly die quickly. All of it's stored memory would be lost, as the storage unit is in junctions between it and as many as tens of thousands of other cells. Other downstream connections it had established with other neurons would weaken as well. Also, the way memories are encoded and regulated are entirely different for the hippocampus vs. say, the cerebellum.

If you were to copy a brain, you would have to have already copied the brain in some fashion, and be updating the copy in real time. It cannot be done incrementally, it would need to be entirely instantaneous.

[Jefe]

Don't they say we actually have a decent amount of our brains that don't even get used?

It was not meant to be used. For example, Neanderthals had a brain bigger than ours. It's not like overclocking a computer with the hopes of increasing its performance.

[Kuya]

I've had this thought experiment a few times in the past few months or so, and the result I always come up with is that I just don't know how I feel.

'Perfect' Clones (Not clone breeding like we do now with sheep and whatnot) Yeah, its not 'you'. You're directly copying yourself, killing yourself, and the other just THINKS its you (because it has all your memories, emotions, etc)

Teleportation: I feel the same way here. You're making a perfect copy to the point where it can't differentiate sense-of-self (it will be 100% sure its you, so no real way to test this...)... but your main consciousness is being destroyed. How do I know that I'm not just dying while a replica is made?

So, that leads me to my next thought.. for all we know, we 'die' when we go to sleep, and a brand new consciousness is formed overnight, and given to us to control in the morning... however, nobody really fears going to sleep at night. Nobody fears that the 'tomorrow' you won't be the same as the 'current' you...

This all just leaves me with a resounding 'I dont know' feeling about all of it.

Your brain does not shut down when you are sleeping, thus like others have said, you are still conscious.

Don't they say we actually have a decent amount of our brains that don't even get used?

All of the brain is used, it's just that specific parts "activate" for specific tasks.