XPost: sci.skeptic, alt.paranormal, soc.history   
   From: x@x.org   
      
   On 11/4/25 11:58, JTEM wrote:   
   > On 11/4/25 5:18 AM, x wrote:   
   >   
   >> Is something like 'life insurance' a bad idea?  Who really knows.   
   >   
   > I don't see it as life insurance.   
   >   
   > Even if it was an exact duplicate of your mind, inside of a computer,   
   > starting the moment it was copied it would follow a unique existence.   
   > A year later, assuming the computer copy had yet to go completely   
   > insane from the ordeal, it would no nothing but life inside of a   
   > computer. It's perspective would be alien to you.   
   >   
   > Food would be important to the real you. Air conditioning in the   
   > heat, a warm fire in the cold of winter... sex?   
   >   
   > A comfortable bed?   
   >   
   > Even the relief of taking a piss!   
      
   All of these are sensations, which are the byproduct of   
   sensory nerves coming in from the eyes, ears, body, nose,   
   and tongue.   
      
   There is of course the standard question in philosophy,   
   how do you know you have not already been uploaded?   
   (The answer is that you do not know.)   
      
   Then of course there is the question - is there any   
   'you' when your body and brain have been eaten by   
   maggots (or you have been cremated).   
      
   Considering the fine resolution (high frequency)   
   microscopic level of reading required to do a copy,   
   I am not sure you could realistically do a copy   
   without destroying the original tissue.   
      
   How quickly after death could this be done?  There   
   is something called 'embalming' and I have also   
   heard some statements about a 'soup of cell fragments'   
   perhaps setting in hours?  Days?  I do not know.   
   There is also the possibility of testing on animals.   
   No way if someone is actually alive.  If the physical   
   remnants of your body is rotting and being eaten   
   by maggots however it seems to me it could be something   
   like 'life insurance' (which often pays for tombstones   
   and grave sites anyway).   
      
   >   
   > None of these would exist for the copy of you. Life, what it means,   
   > what is important would be all different.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)