Raise the Retirement Age to 67?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

[Ian]

Fine by me. My thought processes will merely transfer from one medium to another.

Which means there will be a machine that thinks like you. Nothing more.

Right now I'm just a machine that thinks like me.

Wouldn't you miss taste and touch and scent and all that, though? I don't think I'd want to be the electronic version of a brain in a jar-- even if I could still talk to people.

I don't think it would be anywhere near that dry. Taste and touch and scent are just nerve signals interpreted by your brain. Ever seen The Matrix?

[Robert_S]

By the time I'm 67, I should be able to upload my brain into cyberspace and spend a few centuries enjoying my time in a virtual paradise.

I trust you do realise that it would be a copy of your brain uploaded. It is impossible, even in theory, to actually upload your brain. The upload process will require your death, while your electronic twin sibling lives on.

Fine by me. My thought processes will merely transfer from one medium to another.

Which means there will be a machine that thinks like you. Nothing more.

Right now I'm just a machine that thinks like me.

If, for a time. you used the computer for some of your thinking then you would be two machines that thought like you. Or is that one machine with both electronic and biological components?

the point is that if your consciousness is spread across two different media, then losing one of the media won't seem like dying. There will be some consistency.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

[Ian]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

I was trying to use an easily accepted reference.

Ever read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

I was trying to use an easily accepted reference.

Ever read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil?

[hadespussercats]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

I was trying to use an easily accepted reference.

Ever read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil?

I read The Age of Intelligent Machines (Wait. I think it was that one. That or The Age of Spiritual Machines.) I know what you're talking about, I think. And, yeah, if virtual reality really were that encompassing, that doesn't sound like a bad option. He even referred to people in love merging their consciousness, and other romantic ideas like that.

I think that sort of thing is too far off to benefit us. But who knows?

[Blind groper]

It is still seems to me to be an unbelievably naive thing to wish for. A 'copy' of his brain in a computer is not him. If that is what happens, he dies, and a different individual with a different consciousness lives in a computer. Either way, he is dead.

[Warren Dew]

I read The Age of Intelligent Machines (Wait. I think it was that one. That or The Age of Spiritual Machines.) I know what you're talking about, I think. And, yeah, if virtual reality really were that encompassing, that doesn't sound like a bad option. He even referred to people in love merging their consciousness, and other romantic ideas like that.

I think that sort of thing is too far off to benefit us. But who knows?

You mean MMORPGs aren't close enough?

[hadespussercats]

It is still seems to me to be an unbelievably naive thing to wish for. A 'copy' of his brain in a computer is not him. If that is what happens, he dies, and a different individual with a different consciousness lives in a computer. Either way, he is dead.

Even if the computer consciousness remembers being Ian in his organic body? a smooth continuation of consciousness?

Yes, his body would be dead, either way. But I'm not so sure the computer version (or versions) wouldn't be him.

[hadespussercats]

I read The Age of Intelligent Machines (Wait. I think it was that one. That or The Age of Spiritual Machines.) I know what you're talking about, I think. And, yeah, if virtual reality really were that encompassing, that doesn't sound like a bad option. He even referred to people in love merging their consciousness, and other romantic ideas like that.

I think that sort of thing is too far off to benefit us. But who knows?

You mean MMORPGs aren't close enough?

They wouldn't be for me. But, then, I don't play.

[hadespussercats]

I think I watched this one on MST3K, back in the day.

[Ian]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

I was trying to use an easily accepted reference.

Ever read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil?

"The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity." - Ray Kurzweil

"Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence." - Bill Gates

It is still seems to me to be an unbelievably naive thing to wish for. A 'copy' of his brain in a computer is not him. If that is what happens, he dies, and a different individual with a different consciousness lives in a computer. Either way, he is dead.

Even if the computer consciousness remembers being Ian in his organic body? a smooth continuation of consciousness?

Yes, his body would be dead, either way. But I'm not so sure the computer version (or versions) wouldn't be him.

Exactly. Of course, I wouldn't want to be the first person in the world to try transferring his mind from a biological machine into an artifical one. But those that go first will prove how viable it is. Those who know them well will still be able to talk with them like they always have, even after their original bodies are decomposing in the ground.

[hadespussercats]

Ever seen The Matrix?

Great information source you got there.

I was trying to use an easily accepted reference.

Ever read The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil?

"The Singularity is an era in which our intelligence will become increasingly nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful than it is today—the dawning of a new civilization that will enable us to transcend our biological limitations and amplify our creativity." - Ray Kurzweil

"Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence." - Bill Gates

It is still seems to me to be an unbelievably naive thing to wish for. A 'copy' of his brain in a computer is not him. If that is what happens, he dies, and a different individual with a different consciousness lives in a computer. Either way, he is dead.

Even if the computer consciousness remembers being Ian in his organic body? a smooth continuation of consciousness?

Yes, his body would be dead, either way. But I'm not so sure the computer version (or versions) wouldn't be him.

Exactly. Of course, I wouldn't want to be the first person in the world to try transferring his mind from a biological machine into an artifical one. But those that go first will prove how viable it is. We'll still be able to talk with them like anyone else, even after their original bodies are decomposing in the ground.

Lots of people have transferred their minds to inorganic entities-- books, artwork, music, buildings and bridges and all that...

The trick is making the transferred mind capable of continuing to grow and change and interact.

[mistermack]

I just wanna move to California and get glaucoma.

I don't get it.
I hate it when I don't get it.
I feel like an elephant with no arms.

Anyway, I've got glaucoma, and don't want to move to California. I just put one eyedrop in each eye at bedtime.