Would you download your consciousness into computer hardware?

Would you download your consciousness into computer hardware?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 29.6%
  • I'd accept bionic implants

    Votes: 8 29.6%
  • No

    Votes: 11 40.7%

  • Total voters
    27

Drekken

l33t Civer
Joined
Sep 24, 2001
Messages
99
Location
Edmonton, Alberta
Or at least accept bionic implants?
I'd personally be happy to abandon this sack of meat called a body. Also it's not a question if but when this will be possible. Computer hardware is quickly accelerating to match and then overtake the brain's computation qualities. While the human brain is only limited to using neural nets to do thinking with computer hardware can utilize recursion, evolutionary algorithms along with better neural nets to think. Also, knowledge about the human brain is also expanding at a steady rate. It's interesting to note that a couple of decades ago doctors said the brain should never be touched, but yet we are now successfully preforming brain surgery.

You have to admit the human body is very fragile, and without our technology we'd probably be extinct already. Therefore it's our destiny to become a part of the same technology that sustains us. Also, most of the problems that exist in our world today greed, hate, war, poverty, etc. can be attributed to aspects of human nature that are hard to change as long as we remain in a human body since evolution programmed those traits in us in the first place.

Our technology may not be perfect, but let's note that most of the evils that are associated with technology are caused by human nature misusing it and not by the technology itself. Technology is becoming better and more reliable as time passes. Also to be noted, while the human body has remained more or less the same over its existence and our intelligence hasn't increased since the beginning of civilization (just our knowledge.) With our biological limitations removed, we can realize our higher potential, and keep reaching even higher potentials.

This is our future, we must seize it or perish.
 
Also, if bionic implants came out first (and they probally will). I'd be one of the first in line to get one. Even implants would be a vast improvement over what we have now.
 
Have you ever played the ASCII action/strategy game Silicon City? In it, human brains weren't replaced with processing chips to manage robotic limbs; rather, personalities - all of their facets - were voluntarily digitized and stored in a behemoth supercomputer, where they lasted until being infected and corrupted by strange polymorphic beings (sound familiar?).

Of course, if a brain's content was transferred to hardware, its owner wouldn't assume the consciousness of the data in memory. It would be pointless and nobody would acquiesce to such procedure. On the other hand, cognitive/ocular/auditory enhancements and robotic limbs would be more acceptable, calling for a complete overhaul of that gross bag of protein called the human body. And when the brain, the only residual organic presence, begins to fail, it can be cryonically frozen and restored to its earlier years.
 
I can't see why someone would want to implant small computers inside themselves. Anything a computer can do good, a man can do it great.

Man created the computer, not the computer creating the man.
 
Hamlet: I guess it is.

bvd: Maybe putting all the eggs in one basket (or a supercomputer) approach won't be used, but instead each person/entity will have their own hardware and be networked to function like a supercomputer yet the network can't all be destroyed at once.
Of course, if a brain's content was transferred to hardware, its owner wouldn't assume the consciousness of the data in memory. It would be pointless and nobody would acquiesce to such procedure.
I don't quite understand what you're saying here. The brain is nothing more than a biologic computer. Electronics can emulate the brain (via neural nets). Therefore you'd function like you would with your brain except for it'd be much faster and more efficient.

rmsharpe: Calculate Pi to 1000 decimal places within your lifetime or memorize/absorb the contents of ‘War and Peace' within seconds and then recite any word upon request and be able to do this for the rest of your life.
Also thanks to evolutionary algorithms, computers can produce better designs for a part or write better software than any human can. Also a computer can beat humans at chess, and it'll be a matter of time before an AI can defeat any human at Civ (you have to admit that improvements to the AI in Civ3 have been made over Civ2, although it's not good enough...yet).
Also, I didn't say anything about a computer creating man. I'm just advocating to use technology directly to overcome our biological limitations.

CornMaster: With advances in robotic technology, you can have a body that would outperform your old biological one in everyway. Also, one well-placed hit won't kill you either.
 
I would do it if it was completely safe.

I take that back. I wouldn't do it b/c my wife never would, hence I wouldn't. Till death do us part.

Now if she died first..... ;)

(Just to let everyone know, I love my wife without reservation and I say this all in jest.)
 
I don't think we know nearly enough about the human brain to 'emulate' it inside a neural computer, there's still no neural computer that really works.
 
I'd do it, but I think I'd want to do a test run first. Sort of like copying and pasting my brain into it. If I could see my copy acting self-aware, I'd go through with the procedure.

BTW, since you'd be in a whole new body, you'd probably have to learn to walk again, wouldn't you? The bionic arms people are getting now mean they have to learn to move it again as nerves now do different things than they used to.
 
Voice from the back: "What would the SEX be like?"

Seriously, though, how much of sex is just sensory data, endorphins or whatever, and how much of it is a transcendent, somewhat spiritual celebration of union through the feel of each others' human bodies? GOOD sex anyway....

There are some things in life where the human body can be a very GOOD thing.... ;)
 
How about we link everybody's mind together in a collective conscienceness and go around muttering 'Resistence is Futile' LOL :rolleyes: :)

But seriously it wold be pretty dangerous. Would it really be worth it. Man has existed in our current state for many thousands of years and we have done OK haven't we?
 
It depend's on the developer of the actual hardware.If that is a Microsoft integrated interface with Intel inside ,ill surely pass. (i can see my data space flamed by comercials already)
in any way ,before i even would consider it ,the hardware itself would have to have proven itself not to be weak agains bugs/viruses ,or overheating or anything like that. (or i have to get an unlimited guarantee on my body)

a benifit of all this: expandabiletty.
While a human body can only process and hold a certain amount of information ,there is no limit to the expandibilety of a robotic body ,as technoligy always improves.
 
Drekken:

My sentience on Earth is a heap of neuralgia traversed by neurons. Unless it remains in its original form... I am dead, though, if my brain's content was to be digitized, another consciousness (independent of me) would be born.

Oh, and Silicon City was pretty s_itty (and I'm not one to deride old DOS games), had a farcical plot and is needless to say not intended to be a study in cybernetics, ethics or alternatives to human existance.
 
No way. Computers and mechanical parts will never be able to duplicate all the complex feelings and emotions that our bodies have. While they may be able to do computational things faster than our brains, they don't actually understand what they have just "learned" and come no where near the level that the human brain operates at.
 
What suprises me about the responses to this thread is the number of people who appear so eager to trade in their humanity.

I don't have the body of Arnold Schwartznegger (spelling?) or the mind of Einstein (spelling?) but I am yet to see any non-human alternative that I would willingly trade my fragile human form for, or parts thereof.

I think many people grossly underestimate the agility, flexibility, durability, strength and beauty of the human body. And then there is the human mind and spirit/soul (consciousness). Yes, sure computers can carry out simple calculations quicker than a human brain - so what. There is no computer yet developed that can match the all round capabilities of the human brain and that is with out considering emotions.

I'm not arguing against people who have some form of disability or injury having access to non-biotic replacement parts to enhance their existence I just don't understand the desire of whole healthy people wanting to trade in part, or the whole of their humanity.

I would suggest they work harder at improving the human body and mind they have.
 
Obviously for many people this is a question of the available technology. I believe that the initial concept of the thread was that you could transfer everything, emotions and all. I think the question could come down to: If you could have the Terminator's body and retain everything about your consciousness so that to all mental and emotional tests you are indistinguishable from your old self, would you make the change? I'd say yes. That way, in four or five centuries, if I get bored, I can opt to turn myself off. This opposed to perhaps dying at any moment and likely within the next 40-50 years. Some old people are "ready" for death, but I suspect that they would want continued life if they could do so at the prime of their lives.

As far as implants go though I would say no, other than the ones that a doctor may deem required for my survival (artifical heart when mine quits). Take eyes for instance, I wear glasses now on occassion and could get the laser surgery, but I don't because it's just not that big of deal to me (I have very mild near-sightedness, this would be different were it extreme, and might be different in 20 years when I can't read a computer screen;) ). I'm more for extending my life than fixing a few problems or enhancing a few things. It just isn't currently worth it in terms of hassle and risk.
 
Back
Top Bottom