One day, while traveling with a friend through London, I was asked one of those cyber-existential questions: "Do you think it's possible to transfer your mind to a new body, so you could have an extended lifespan?"
"It would not be you in the new body anymore...", and I noticed my friend's disappointment towards my reply; to which I expanded, "You would continue to be your 'old' self, and the new one would be a completely separate entity. Although the mind state at the moment of the transfer would be carried forward by the new body...".
My friend then spent the rest of the train travel computing my answer. But I would like to expand the idea here a bit further. Certain lines of thought in the philosophy/science of the mind field propose the following (in a nutshell): The mind is composed of a myriad of competing/collaborating processes (or entities...), and the byproduct of these processes interactivity gives us consciousness. One would conclude then that these processes can be related to specific brain locations and neuronal networks...
Now, taking that in consideration, one possible solution to the longevity/mind transfer problem, would be to substitute these individual components one by one. If individual functions can then be mapped to another media (e.g. electronics, artificial cells) the transfer would be gradual.
"It would not be you in the new body anymore...", and I noticed my friend's disappointment towards my reply; to which I expanded, "You would continue to be your 'old' self, and the new one would be a completely separate entity. Although the mind state at the moment of the transfer would be carried forward by the new body...".
My friend then spent the rest of the train travel computing my answer. But I would like to expand the idea here a bit further. Certain lines of thought in the philosophy/science of the mind field propose the following (in a nutshell): The mind is composed of a myriad of competing/collaborating processes (or entities...), and the byproduct of these processes interactivity gives us consciousness. One would conclude then that these processes can be related to specific brain locations and neuronal networks...
Now, taking that in consideration, one possible solution to the longevity/mind transfer problem, would be to substitute these individual components one by one. If individual functions can then be mapped to another media (e.g. electronics, artificial cells) the transfer would be gradual.
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