Human immortality through artificial bodies?

[Victoria Jennings]

Think of it this way, would you want your children to live in a happy fantasy, or a real Hell?

And this is why I'd choose to stay in the Matrix. It's not like living in a digital environment would make you any less human, or make anything less real.

...I haven't even watched that movie. orz

[Lekhaka]

Anyone interested in a short story?

http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html

[FragmentedBergyo]

Think of it this way, would you want your children to live in a happy fantasy, or a real Hell?

It come back to the good old "You can either choose Happiness or the Truth. Not both." Nobody has the right to decide for others.

[Lekhaka]

Oh, realized I missed some posts here.

Jumping in again with a non-philosophical question, just because it's bugging me...

If everyone went digital with their brains, could the shifting of the Earth's polarity as is being anticipated right now be a threat to the human race in a way it isn't currently? I heard people were worried about it breaking things.

Scanning over the wiki article on geomagnetic reversal, it doesn't seem like anything would specifically affect human computing technology. It mentions stuff like greater susceptibility to radiation and such due to the weakening of the magnetic field during reversal, but that's a danger to everything, so a problem to be solved regardless of whether you're digital.

I'd be very surprised if uploading happens in my lifetime - and because of that, I won't be around to be surprised if it never happens at all.

I'm interested in a couple of things then: when do you think uploading will be available? What about the alternatives, like the mentioned biological immortality via nanotech? And if none of those come before you expect to die, there's at least already cryonics?

One of the cool things about becoming a computer model of yourself is that you get to control the clock speed. So you could make time pass faster or slower at your whim. Making time pass slower is one of the interesting things - an uploaded-human could slow themselves down (making time pass faster) while travelling to another star.

Yep, or make them think faster (speed up subjective time). Neurons fire at about 200Hz...now if you turn that up to the GHz of modern computers, you'd be able to experience each moment a million times longer.

[Sapphi]

Neurons fire at about 200Hz...now if you turn that up to the GHz of modern computers, you'd be able to experience each moment a million times longer.

Ladies and gentlemen, the future face of torture.

[Lishy]

Does the mind of Dick Cheney really need to be preserved? He thinks waterboarding is not torture.

[wakagana]

*singing*

Guns don't kill people, UH-UH.

I KILL PEOPLE.

WITH GUNS.

POW.

[Lekhaka]

Neurons fire at about 200Hz...now if you turn that up to the GHz of modern computers, you'd be able to experience each moment a million times longer.

Ladies and gentlemen, the future face of torture.

Evil ideas seem to come easily to you, have you noticed that?

[Sapphi]

Evil ideas seem to come easily to you, have you noticed that?

Indeed I have. Delightful, isn't it?

[LVUER]

Then you must read "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream".

If brain will decay eventually but we can experience a moment a million times longer, then we can put (only) our brain in statis/cryogenic when we don't need it (like sleeping for indefinite amount of time) while our body have been immortal anyway.

[Lekhaka]

nah bro, just upload instead of keeping your biological brain (you can't clock a brain anyways)

it means no worries...for the rest of your days....

[wordlesswriter]

Oh my god. Whenever I feel depressed about mortality I just make a joke about the robot body I'm gonna get in the future. That is so rad. ;D

Ha, same. I also joke about it whenever anyone bitches about their physical fitness. XD
"Oh, don't worry, we'll all be able to buy all of the clothes we want in the future, because we'll have identical shaped, mass-produced robot body shells. 8D"

As others have said on organ decay... well, hopefully, by the time all of these technologies have been developed, we will have found an ethical method to use stem-cells to clone our organs.
I'm not entirely sure if that's possible without growing a full clone, however. You would think we could find a way to manipulate the HOX genes to do that. But if a full biological clone is required for organ replacement, that raises all sorts of ethical questions.

[illeashu]

dangerous ? how dangerous could it be, ? crazed cyborgs running around destroying things in fits of emotion, how is that worse than dying or us running around destroying things in fits of emotion lol, my real concern would be, when do they get to be president, ? or nannies ? or , what could they possibly be trusted to be