The connection to analog audio seems obvious to me: a digitized audio file contains no music, it contains only discrete samples taken at various times, samples which when played out properly generate music. An upload file containing the recording of a digital brain contains no conciousness, but is concious when run, one cycle at a time.
A sample is a snapshot of an instant of music; an upload is a snapshot of conciousness. Playing out a large number of samples creates music; running an upload forward in time creates conciousness. In the same way that a frozen brain isn’t concious but an unfrozen, running brain is—an uploaded copy isn’t concious, but a running, uploaded copy is.
That’s the point I was trying to get across. The discussion of samples and states is important because you seem to have this need for transitions to be ‘continuous’ for conciousness to be preserved—but the sampling theorem explicitly says that’s not necessary. There’s no ‘continuous’ transition between two samples in a wave file, yet the original can still be reconstructed perfectly. There may not be a continous transition between a brain and its destructively uploaded copy—but the original and ‘continuous transition’ can still be reconstructed perfectly. It’s simple math.
As a direct result of this, it seems pretty obvious to me that conciousness doesn’t go away because there’s a time gap between states or because the states happen to be recorded on different media, any more than breaking a wave file into five thousand non-contiguous sectors on a hard disk platter destroys the music in the recording. Pretty much the only escape from this is to use a mangled definition of conciousness which requires ‘continuous transition’ for no obvious good reason.
I’m not saying it goes away, I’m saying the uploaded brain is a different person, a different being, a separate identity from the one that was scanned. It is conscious yes, but it is not me in the sense that if I walk into an uploader I expect to walk out again in my fleshy body. Maybe that scan is then used to start a simulation from which arises a fully conscious copy of me, but I don’t expect to directly experience what that copy experiences.
The uploaded brain is a different person, a different being, a separate identity from the one that was scanned. It is conscious yes, and it is me in the sense that I expect with high probability to wake up as an upload and watch my fleshy body walk out of the scanner under its own power.
Of course I wouldn’t expect the simulation to experience the exact same things as the meat version, or expect to experience both copies at the same time. Frankly, that’s an idiotic belief; I would prefer you not bring it into the conversation in the future, as it makes me feel like you’re intentionally trolling me. I may not believe what you believe, but even I’m not that stupid.
The connection to analog audio seems obvious to me: a digitized audio file contains no music, it contains only discrete samples taken at various times, samples which when played out properly generate music. An upload file containing the recording of a digital brain contains no conciousness, but is concious when run, one cycle at a time.
A sample is a snapshot of an instant of music; an upload is a snapshot of conciousness. Playing out a large number of samples creates music; running an upload forward in time creates conciousness. In the same way that a frozen brain isn’t concious but an unfrozen, running brain is—an uploaded copy isn’t concious, but a running, uploaded copy is.
That’s the point I was trying to get across. The discussion of samples and states is important because you seem to have this need for transitions to be ‘continuous’ for conciousness to be preserved—but the sampling theorem explicitly says that’s not necessary. There’s no ‘continuous’ transition between two samples in a wave file, yet the original can still be reconstructed perfectly. There may not be a continous transition between a brain and its destructively uploaded copy—but the original and ‘continuous transition’ can still be reconstructed perfectly. It’s simple math.
As a direct result of this, it seems pretty obvious to me that conciousness doesn’t go away because there’s a time gap between states or because the states happen to be recorded on different media, any more than breaking a wave file into five thousand non-contiguous sectors on a hard disk platter destroys the music in the recording. Pretty much the only escape from this is to use a mangled definition of conciousness which requires ‘continuous transition’ for no obvious good reason.
I’m not saying it goes away, I’m saying the uploaded brain is a different person, a different being, a separate identity from the one that was scanned. It is conscious yes, but it is not me in the sense that if I walk into an uploader I expect to walk out again in my fleshy body. Maybe that scan is then used to start a simulation from which arises a fully conscious copy of me, but I don’t expect to directly experience what that copy experiences.
The uploaded brain is a different person, a different being, a separate identity from the one that was scanned. It is conscious yes, and it is me in the sense that I expect with high probability to wake up as an upload and watch my fleshy body walk out of the scanner under its own power.
Of course I wouldn’t expect the simulation to experience the exact same things as the meat version, or expect to experience both copies at the same time. Frankly, that’s an idiotic belief; I would prefer you not bring it into the conversation in the future, as it makes me feel like you’re intentionally trolling me. I may not believe what you believe, but even I’m not that stupid.