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Post by Optimus on Feb 10, 2017 23:07:20 GMT -5
That is what I think, too. The brain is the person. Like the hard drive and apps and whatnot on a computer. Consciousness, mind, "soul" -- emotions, desires, beliefs, etc. -- all in the brain. ETA: Also like computers, I think people can be "programmed" as children. Not entirely, and programs can be overwritten to a large extent, but I think people are who they are in part because of long-running apps they've never considered deleting or upgrading. =D I agree. The self resides in the brain. How it does so is up for a little bit of debate, but the fact that consciousness is a product of the brain is fact (despite what some people claim about the "soul"). And, kids can be "programmed," in a way, because a child's parental and social environment are very influential in how they develop as people. A lot of our attitudes, beliefs, and preferences are heavily based on those of our parents and peers - depending on our age. Elementary-aged kids aren't as susceptible to peer influence, but it becomes a lot stronger in adolescence and early adulthood. We gain more control in our late 20s and on. However, it's also greatly affected by the biological "hardware" that comes pre-installed in the child. Brain structure and hormones play a huge role in our dispositions and internal drives/needs, and sometimes what we indirectly learn from our parents/peers comes into direct conflict with our natural dispositions and instincts. When it comes to "nature" and "nurture," nature often wins, but it's often a bloody battle. Those "long-running apps" are our cognitive heuristics and biases. Sometimes they can be changed, but it can be difficult because it's really hard to "uninstall" them and impossible to totally delete them. It's best to gradually upgrade them over time with various "bug fixes." Geez...I extended your metaphor way too far.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2017 23:29:22 GMT -5
And sometimes you get all infected with viruses and malware and start spamming all your friends and your screen is frozen and your keys are all jammed up and you can't get into any of your accounts.
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Post by Don on Feb 11, 2017 5:37:29 GMT -5
That is what I think, too. The brain is the person. Like the hard drive and apps and whatnot on a computer. Consciousness, mind, "soul" -- emotions, desires, beliefs, etc. -- all in the brain. ETA: Also like computers, I think people can be "programmed" as children. Not entirely, and programs can be overwritten to a large extent, but I think people are who they are in part because of long-running apps they've never considered deleting or upgrading. =D This. Precisely, but most importantly, the final clause of the ETA. As to the OP, yes, it's physically "suicide" but who cares? More problematically, what's to keep a megalomaniac, or even a garden-variety bad guy, from blocking out the "suicide" procedure, setting the coordinates to five feet away, and endlessly replicating an army of himselves or herselves? Oh, and FWIW, what would be transmitted is information, not material. The "state of information" processing and data transmission would be much simpler, not to mention several orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than matter conversion on both ends and transmitting that matter as radiant energy. Even if the actual matter-to-energy conversion and reconversion were possible, it would be economically stupid, for even if the energy to perform the conversions were limitless, there is still wear and tear on machinery to be maintained, and the additional step would require production and maintenance of that additional machinery, as well as introduce a horribly complex and totally unnecessary step of potential failure right in the middle of a life-threatening process. The FDA would never allow it. The new you would contain not one atom (or energy wave) of the original, nor would there be any practical reason for it. And one more point: Haven't we finally, as a society, recognized that identity is what we say it is? If my essence was transferred to a cyborg, and that cyborg claimed my identity, that's good enough for me. This is just more of the same old identity politics that's already made a mess out of society.
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