Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: jeff@logicon.com Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Is uploading suicide? Message-ID: Date: 12 Jan 91 04:05:40 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Future Procrastinators of America Lines: 31 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article franz@cs.washington.edu (Franz G. Amador) writes: >It seems to me that the concept of uploading has a fundamental and >unavoidable flaw. Namely, there is no way to tell [...] that one's >consciousness has been copied into the computer, not merely one's >behavior patterns. This would be a serious problem, indeed, if there were some objective way to determine the presence or absence of consciousness other than by analyzing behavior patterns. >There's no way for you to tell if what >seems to be their voices coming from the depths of the system >represent real, thinking beings with that vital spark of >consciousness, or are simply perfect computer simulations that act >exactly right, but are just mechanical marionettes. If they act "exactly right" it simply doesn't matter (this is the fundamental premise of the Turing test). In fact, there is no way to really tell that you, yourself, are not just some mechanical contrivance that is programmed to believe that it is alive, conscious, and sentient. Any further discussion along this line probably belongs in the comp.ai.philosophy newsgroup rather than in sci.nanotech. :: Jeff Makey Department of Tautological Pleonasms and Superfluous Redundancies Department Disclaimer: I am just a guest of Logicon. Domain: Makey@Logicon.COM UUCP: ucsd!snoopy!Makey