tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post8557462990081753330..comments2023-10-30T04:16:25.917-04:00Comments on Sentient Developments: Martine's mindfilesGeorgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13003484633933455827noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-48320960373338108902007-09-12T21:03:00.000-04:002007-09-12T21:03:00.000-04:00Or....we could just create a lot of gholas! LOL!Or....we could just create a lot of gholas! LOL!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-38839284668359710642007-08-03T21:29:00.000-04:002007-08-03T21:29:00.000-04:00George, it seems you'd be a good person to invite ...George, it seems you'd be a good person to invite to a closed discussion list regarding whether SETI should become METI -- blaring messages into the unknown deliberately attracting attention.<BR/><BR/>For a review of the topic see:<BR/>http://lifeboat.com/ex/shouting.at.the.cosmos<BR/><BR/>If interested, email me via my website:<BR/>http://www.davidbrin.com<BR/><BR/>You are running a great blog BTW.<BR/><BR/>Yours David Brin<BR/>(author of The Transparent Society & The Postman)David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6753820.post-44998219640875123282007-08-03T00:07:00.000-04:002007-08-03T00:07:00.000-04:00Here’s a thought experiment: let’s suppose that yo...<I>Here’s a thought experiment: let’s suppose that you traded memories with your best friend – nothing else, just the memories. You’ve still got your body and all the grey matter in your brain that rightfully belongs to you, except your memories. Does this mean that you and your friend have traded consciousnesses? Does it mean that you’ve uploaded yourself into your friend's brain and vice-versa?<BR/><BR/>The answer is no to both questions! You would still be you in the sense that you’re still observing reality, but you’d be convinced that you are now your friend. A sense of identity (sense being the key word -- a kind of illusion) may have been transferred, but not the conscious lens that each of us has with which we observe and experience the world.</I><BR/><BR/>I'm skeptical that the continuous 'conscious lens' you're talking about here actually exists beyond the sense of continuity we get from identifying with the memory of previous consciousness. So I'd say that the first question doesn't necessarily make any sense, and the second is dependent on how the individuals choose to understand it. I can see it going either way because you'd have the memory (from the other persons perspective) of choosing the switch, so I see a strong sense that you'd recognize that the switch had taken place and continue to identify with the identity which had previously been in that body, despite the problems of having access to none of the memories. On the other hand, I think that if you have direct access to a memory and choose to identify it as your own, then your identity includes that.<BR/><BR/>You're right though, in saying that the identities produced by these mindfiles are awfully weak, even if I don't think I have a continuous consciousness in the first place. From my perspective such an identity would in part be me, but in a very weak and removed way, to where it's not really worth it in my mental calculus of these things.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com