Sam Harris

I posed these questions elsewhere, as a newbie perhaps in the wrong thread, so here goes again.

Assuming it were possible and given that it probably will be at some point, if I were to up-load the entire contents of a brain into a super computer so that it remained self aware, would that constitute life after bodily death? 
If the answer is yes, ‘life’ after death could be turned off and on at the flick of a switch!

And then, if the brain and the computer are turned off, is the brain/being ‘dead’ even though it can be reactivated by a switch?

I suppose the questions depend on the definition of life but, for the purposes of the exercise, what if we narrow it down a bit to a human self reflecting consciousness. 

This scenario poses a number of problems for Christianity in that the up-loaded ‘life’ would not have a soul, and yet you could communicate with the dearly departed as if death had not occurred.

I am sure this has been discussed before, and if someone can point me in the direction of the thread/essay/book, I’ll go away and study it.

I think you can take it that no-one has an answer.

What happened to the pigs?

There is a very faszinating science fiction book series about a society where people simply download their brains to a computer, then grow new bodies and live again. Some of them even don’t grow bodies and become part of a super intelligent computer. It’s one of the most intelligent scifi scenarios that i have ever read. Scrap this, it is THE most intelligent scifi that i know .

First book is Pandora’s Star. I am sure you will find it, author name is “Hamilton” i think.

‘the entire contents of a brain’

This may be able to be done if we use The Champs brain. We may have the time and capability for that.

Make sure you do not pick Salt Creeks brain however. I think he may have a few trillion neurons and synpases more than The Champ.

We would need a quantum computer the size of…..oh never mind. (no pun intended there)

Jefe - 17 October 2008 05:09 PM

McCreason - 17 October 2008 03:19 PM

‘the entire contents of a brain’

This may be able to be done if we use The Champs brain.

I have an antique Timex/Sinclair computer in my garage.

You would still waste most of the space. TC has maybe 5KB RAM and no hard drive.

Can’t we just let people die and “rest in peace.”

The thought of uploading a GWB or Karl Rove doesn’t sound too appealing.