From: dave last (smileydave@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Apr 01 2006 - 18:18:19 MST
Every morning when you wake up, you are a new person with memories of your
old life, believing yourself to be the same. Why then, this illusion of
continuity, of I-ness, of a "soul"? Because in civilization, it was a
tremendous evolutionary advantage be willing to endure some hardship or
discomfort today for the sake of your future self. Thus we evolved an ego.
>From: "H C" <lphege@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: sl4@sl4.org
>To: sl4@sl4.org
>Subject: RE: Continuity of Conscious
>Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:17:32 +0000
>
>Aj,
>
>The terrible, beautiful truth, is that we have no soul.
>
>:)
>
>-Hank
>
>
>>From: "Aj Cann" <ajcann@gmail.com>
>>Reply-To: sl4@sl4.org
>>To: sl4@sl4.org
>>Subject: Continuity of Conscious
>>Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 17:31:00 -0500
>>
>>Perhaps this discussion has before been approached, in that case I
>>apologize. This is my first contribution to this mailing list and if
>>I've failed in anyway to meet the standards of your, quite
>>informative, list please do not hesitate to call me out.
>>
>> The matter I bring up concerns itself with the concept of the
>>upload, or rather continued existence of an individual in the absence
>>of an original body, and of course a biological brain. Originally my
>>worry with the issue was the much discussed argument that merely a
>>copy of the individual's conscious would exist and that from the
>>ego-centric perspective of the original they would no longer exist. Of
>>course the copy would still believe itself to be the original
>>conscious entity, or at least be aware that it felt it was.
>>
>> Now, hopefully I am not treading into the topic of something like
>>the soul, but rather an issue of continuity of consciousness from an
>>egoistic point of view. I'm aware that for all intents and purposes
>>the upload would in fact be the original individual in temperament,
>>experience and other individual traits, however this does not deflect
>>the problem that as the original ego I will still cease to exist if my
>>biological brain or body ceased to function, of course this is only
>>from my ego's point of view.
>>
>> Finally, if there are no major issues with my logic above, though
>>I no doubt will find that assertion incorrect shortly, I purpose a
>>solution that would suit my own personal worries. As the human mind
>>becomes augmented by technology to greater degrees and specifically to
>>the point where some thought processes and cycles are offloaded to
>>non-biological brain components, a directed effort to push ego into
>>the realm of simulations and virtual existence can commence to the
>>point where one feels at home in both the virtual and physical worlds
>>as well as being able to shift focus between the two at will.
>>
>>Thanks for reading, sorry if it got to be a bit lengthy and comments
>>would be much appreciated of course. -- Andrew Cann
>
>
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