12-14-2009, 04:57 AM | #61 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Oldenburg, Germany
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
They would have to change radically to achieve a "Muslim dominated Europe" in the first place. Really, that "Eurabia" meme is way overblown.
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12-14-2009, 05:37 AM | #62 |
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: a crooked, creaky manse built on a blasted heath
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
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12-14-2009, 07:37 AM | #63 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
Quote:
After all, even if you have that magic personality copy at that one point in time, the fact that that magic ghost is no longer in a physical body, with the chemical and assorted other inputs which are part and parcel of being in a body, means that you aren't getting any human or understandable psychological response from that infomorph from that point in time forward. At least if you put the magic personality in a magic identical clone you'll get an understandable human heir, but that's a whole lot of magic under the guise of technology. |
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12-14-2009, 07:44 AM | #64 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
Quote:
Ghosting is actually a technology for transferring memories from one person to another. And this is surely a familiar experience for AIs, and perhaps for ghosts (if ghosting is based on theoretical understanding and not just brute force simulation). If Alpha's memory files can be copied and sent to Beta, then Beta can remember proving a theorem in memetics, or guiding a cybershell through combat. But it follows from this that memory is not a reliable criterion of personal identity—which indeed is already clear: a shadow remembers being an organic person, but it was not that person and does not have any of their actual memories; and almost certainly simulated memories can be synthesized and implanted in AIs. If you destructively analyze my brain, and use the information gained to synthesize memories of being me, and implant them in an AI, that AI will remember being me, and if it had no previous memories of anything else, it will not remember being anything other than me—but that is not decisive for an AI's identity. Indeed the very concept of personal identity may not apply to an AI, or at least not in the way in which it applies to an organic being. Bill Stoddard |
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12-14-2009, 09:06 AM | #65 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Ghosts and Mind Copies - The Identity Question
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Besides, changes in biochemistry while alive give pretty impressive changes in personality, more noticeable than the differences between organic and digital minds. Should we be filing inheritance papers three times per menstrual cycle, each time we sleep less than we should, and each time we fall in love? Last edited by vicky_molokh; 12-14-2009 at 02:24 PM. |
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12-14-2009, 09:07 AM | #66 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
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12-14-2009, 09:10 AM | #67 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Ghosts and Mind Copies - The Identity Question
Not really, since it is not known what happens to it under what circumstances. Are xoxes parallel reincarnations or duplicate souls? Etc.
Last edited by vicky_molokh; 12-14-2009 at 02:24 PM. |
12-14-2009, 09:18 AM | #68 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
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Yes, there are questions arising here about body chemistry impinging on the brain. (Neural signals are conceptually much easier.) Whether these questions are enough to suggest that the ghost is totally incapable of human-like functions and responses is, I'd say, an open question. (I do suspect that TS underestimates the complexity required for a high-res human brain model program; I'd guess that complexity 8 would be more reasonable than 7.)
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12-14-2009, 09:34 AM | #69 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
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Re: Is Transhuman Space a "silly" genre?
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Not to mention that the programmed change would be way more than just three times per menstrual cycle, not even getting into sugar, chocolate and caffeine boosts, at least with every woman I've know. *grin* Is it sunny out?, rainy?, did the barometer drop?, sleep well?, wake up funny?, feeling the burn from yesterday's workout?, feeling slothful from that overindulgent dessert?, etc., any personality which doesn't reflect changes in stimuli and the environment is greatly less than human. |
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12-14-2009, 09:48 AM | #70 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Ghosts and Mind Copies - The Identity Question
Quote:
Last edited by vicky_molokh; 12-14-2009 at 02:24 PM. |
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