From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 16 2007 - 03:52:33 MDT
On 16/10/2007, Matt Mahoney <matmahoney@yahoo.com> wrote:
> One could program an uploaded mind in one of two ways to solve the problem.
> One is to remove the fear of death. But such an intelligence would have no
> sense of consciousness. It would reason that one set of memories is just as
> good as another, and die.
This doesn't follow. Firstly it is possible to have no fear of death
and still have a sense of personal identity (is this what you mean by
"consciousness"?): suicidal people are suicidal precisely because they
believe that they are the same person from moment to moment, and want
this to end. Secondly it is possible to reason intellectually that
personal identity is just an illusion and still have a very strong
emotional attachment to the continuation of that illusion.
> The other is to achieve immortality by backing up
> memories, even if they are no longer useful.
That wouldn't achieve immortality. To experience immortality, I want
there to be an endless succession of future moments. Once I am at a
particular moment, it makes no difference to me if past moments are
erased.
-- Stathis Papaioannou
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