Future of war: Private robot armies fight it out

[Ideologue]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

You could likely replicate the same patterns.  But most people would probably be surprised by the results, because most people think consciousness is actually continuous and non-discrete.

I hate seeing it in fiction when someone "uploads" or whatever terminology they use, and their body falls down like a ragdoll.  It's like assuming that a photograph can steal your soul.

[Slargos]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic to less advanced societies. We've barely (hell, even that's an exaggeration) begun to scratch the surface of the inner workings of the mind and the psyche and ruling out things this soon is nigh on impossible.

Regardless, I didn't say that I believed it's a possibility, I merely said that it would be the best type of scenario that I think we could realistically wish for.

[Slargos]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

You could likely replicate the same patterns.  But most people would probably be surprised by the results, because most people think consciousness is actually continuous and non-discrete.

I hate seeing it in fiction when someone "uploads" or whatever terminology they use, and their body falls down like a ragdoll.  It's like assuming that a photograph can steal your soul.

And in the 80s they believed people would be walking around with computer terminals strapped to fanny packs. What technology will look like in 30, let alone 100 years, is pretty difficult to accurately predict.

[Neil]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic to less advanced societies. We've barely (hell, even that's an exaggeration) begun to scratch the surface of the inner workings of the mind and the psyche and ruling out things this soon is nigh on impossible.

Regardless, I didn't say that I believed it's a possibility, I merely said that it would be the best type of scenario that I think we could realistically wish for.

Don't bother quoting Clarke to me.  The only thing that is you is you.

[Slargos]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic to less advanced societies. We've barely (hell, even that's an exaggeration) begun to scratch the surface of the inner workings of the mind and the psyche and ruling out things this soon is nigh on impossible.

Regardless, I didn't say that I believed it's a possibility, I merely said that it would be the best type of scenario that I think we could realistically wish for.

Don't bother quoting Clarke to me.  The only thing that is you is you.

Maybe. In which case humanity is imminently fucked. 

[Neil]

Maybe. In which case humanity is imminently fucked. 

Of course.  Everything goes extinct.  Why would humanity be any different?

[Ideologue]

Best case scenario, androids or consciousness transfers.

There's no such thing as a consciousness transfer.  That's like believing in magic.

You could likely replicate the same patterns.  But most people would probably be surprised by the results, because most people think consciousness is actually continuous and non-discrete.

I hate seeing it in fiction when someone "uploads" or whatever terminology they use, and their body falls down like a ragdoll.  It's like assuming that a photograph can steal your soul.

And in the 80s they believed people would be walking around with computer terminals strapped to fanny packs. What technology will look like in 30, let alone 100 years, is pretty difficult to accurately predict.

It's simply not how consciousness works, as even mere observation can demonstrate.

The best you can ever create is a replica.  Which sounds worse than it would be, since "you" only exist for a moment anyway.  Continuity is a complete illusion--consider that you are not consciously aware of your entire life up till this point.  The "you" in the past is only accessible by memory.  Consider further that the accessing itself takes time and is not an immediate process, but a discrete series of steps carried out by your thinking organ.

Several "yous" access memory--and between all of them, and between the saved memory and the human recovering them, the state of the brain is different, and in many cases the atoms themselves won't be the same.  If consciousness transfer can't even be accomplished within the same body, why would it be feasible to do so with two?

So the notion of uploading a continuous consciousness is no different than believing in an immortal soul.  It only seems more plausible, but its rooted in the most pernicious of ideologies, that of mind-body dualism.

[Slargos]

Maybe. In which case humanity is imminently fucked. 

Of course.  Everything goes extinct.  Why would humanity be any different?

Eventually, of course. It's the nature of entropy that all constructs must "end".

I'm talking about the next couple of generations.

[Slargos]

It's simply not how consciousness works, as even mere observation can demonstrate.

The best you can ever create is a replica.  Which sounds worse than it would be, since "you" only exist for a moment anyway.  Continuity is a complete illusion--consider that you are not consciously aware of your entire life up till this point.  The "you" in the past is only accessible by memory.  Consider further that the accessing itself takes time and is not an immediate process, but a discrete series of steps carried out by your thinking organ.

Several "yous" access memory--and between all of them, and between the saved memory and the human recovering them, the state of the brain is different, and in many cases the atoms themselves won't be the same.  If consciousness transfer can't even be accomplished within the same body, why would it be feasible to do so with two?

So the notion of uploading a continuous consciousness is no different than believing in an immortal soul.  It only seems more plausible, but its rooted in the most pernicious of ideologies, that of mind-body dualism.

I'm familiar with the theory. But it presupposes that we already know all the building blocks that make up a person and that there is indeed no such thing as a "soul" whether we're talking about the spiritual version or simply an extra-physical (for the lack of a better way to describe physical laws we are simply unaware of) construct that is independent of the body itself.

I hate to repeat myself, but it's painfully evident that I must: I'm not saying you're absolutely wrong, I'm simply saying that we don't have enough data to conclusively determine you're right.

[Capetan Mihali]

They've already made several worst-case scenario movies starring Austrian actors. 

Pretty sure he was a painter, not an actor.

[Neil]

A soul?  That's just an argument for magic.

[Eddie Teach]

And lo and behold, it might even happen in my life time. That I'd not imagined. 

Machines wouldn't reproduce, so eventually they'd die out and the cave people would repopulate the earth.

[Slargos]

And lo and behold, it might even happen in my life time. That I'd not imagined. 

Machines wouldn't reproduce, so eventually they'd die out and the cave people would repopulate the earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_machine

[Slargos]

A soul?  That's just an argument for magic.

I hate to repeat myself, but it's painfully evident that I must: I'm not  saying you're absolutely wrong, I'm simply saying that we don't have  enough data to conclusively determine you're right.                

[Slargos]

They've already made several worst-case scenario movies starring Austrian actors. 

Pretty sure he was a painter, not an actor.

I said worst-case. WORST case.

Keep up.