Poll: Human + Too Much Robot = ?

[Dorian]

We all know that if someone doesn't have or looses an arm or a leg we can just replace it with a bionic limb and move on. We can even do the same with hearts and kidneys for short periods of time.

But I've been thinking.

What if/when human technology gets so advanced that we can mimic or perfect robotic implants of every part of the body. Then we could just get a new one whenever we need a new one and still be in great health. But what if we got so many implants we became almost 100% percent robot, then we decide to just download the brain and put it in the *HARD* drive? Would we conciously live on? What do YOU think?

I personally think that our mind would die and leave behind a robot acting like us.


EDIT: I changed floppy drive to hard drive to prevent further confusion.

 

[bad rider]

It would be annoying because everyone would think your alive because a robot is telling everyone that you are.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Do you have any idea how many floppies it would take to store a human mind? We don't have the space!

 

[Aries_Split]

Consciousness remains the one thing a machine can not replicate.

And will hopefully never be able to.

 

[NekoAnastasia]

I must be human because trying to conceive the whole possibility gave me a headache.

 

[Dorian]

Do you have any idea how many floppies it would take to store a human mind? We don't have the space!

We have the internet. That's enough for Chuck Norris. A human mind should be simple enough.

 

[zen5887]

Isnt this a plot to a movie?

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Look up Ghost in the Shell.

 

[WolfThomas]

I think he's proposing the Cybermen from Doctor Who, just wait till someone mentions emotions being a burden.

 

[Dorian]

Look up Ghost in the Shell.

That's TV. I'm talking about actual life were it possible.

 

[Dorian]

Well, if we could perfectly replicate every signal that goes through our brains, I think that, whether or not you are still alive, the person that takes your place is indeed a "being".

edit:

Look up Ghost in the Shell.

That's TV. I'm talking about actual life were it possible.

What's the difference between us talking about a non-existant concept and Ghost in the Shell which is a pretty deep philosophical examination into this same non-existant concept?

edit2:

In other words, how does it being an anime / manga invalidate it?

I could go type down a history of the world and say that the sky is brown, the dinosaurs never died out, books countain the DNA of the gods, or that George Bush is human, but that doesn't mean that any of them are true.

Simply, going by the real world, what would happen, or rather what do you think will happen.

 

[ace_of_something]

My question is... would you dream of electric sheep?

 

[Erana]

Well, if we could perfectly replicate every signal that goes through our brains, I think that, whether or not you are still alive, the person that takes your place is indeed a "being".

edit:

Look up Ghost in the Shell.

That's TV. I'm talking about actual life were it possible.

What's the difference between us talking about a non-existant concept and Ghost in the Shell which is a pretty deep philosophical examination into this same non-existant concept?

edit2:

In other words, how does it being an anime / manga invalidate it?

I could go type down a history of the world and say that the sky is brown, the dinosaurs never died out, books countain the DNA of the gods, or that George Bush is human, but that doesn't mean that any of them are true.

Simply, going by the real world, what would happen, or rather what do you think will happen.

Your hypothetical question is a fiction in itself, therefore, it is as valid or invalid as GITS.

 

[Dorian]

My question is... would you dream of electric sheep?

I'd say either that, or some people playing Pong.

 

[Wicky_42]

The way I see it, if you could digitise a person's consciousness they would in one sense have ascended to another level of existence. Think about it - immediate access to the entire knowledge available to the internet, expandable, potentially unlimited memory storage, no more cell degradation - digital links would potentially be more reliable and more durable. Why keep it limited to one physical place? The consciousness would be more like software, free to move through electronic connections just as we are able to move through the physical world.

Of course, there's problems - devoid of a physical body, would a person's sense of identity get lost in the expanse of information in which they dwelt? As they absorbed more and more information, would they not slowly become analogous to it, until they essentially become absorbed by the world in which they dwell?

Ghost in the Shell, an anime series with advanced cybernetics, addresses this, from its own perspective, in one of the films (forget which one). In it, people can opt to have their brain replaced with a fully synthetic version, capable of connecting to the internet or directly linking to other people's brains. But what happens if whilst your consciousness is online your brain is destroyed? Do you wink out of existance? Or does the collection of thoughts, memories, and intentions left on the net make up the essence, the soul, of you?

In the end, what are we? A biological machine, capable of making of making decisions based on our stored memories, with emotions that are technically the result of chemical releases that affect our perceptions and decisions. If we were able to synthesise the same process in an artificial body, who are we to say that it is not a person in its own right? If a machine is able to make its own decisions, based on its memories and aims, think about why that is different to an organic being making decisions based on its memories and desires. Maybe not higher intelligence - that's a little more abstract to contemplate off the bat - but think of it in terms of animals - a dog for example.

Realistically, we can see a machine capable of similar decision making that a dog is capable of. Does that make it any less intelligent than a dog? Do we automatically discriminate against machines because they are artificial? What if machines become capable of designing and producing other machines - making offspring. Would they then be a proper lifeform, for all their mechanicality?

If you are interested in this idea, you could do a lot worse than reading some of Ian Bank's scif-fi series of 'Culture' novels - he has sentient computers, and sometimes discusses what distinguishes machine intelligence from organic - or even if there is a real difference, once you reach a certain point.

 

[Hunde Des Krieg]

Look up Ghost in the Shell.

That's TV. I'm talking about actual life were it possible.[/quote]
Give it 40 years

 

[Ursus Astrorum]

I think that it's possible to someday replace our physical selves with machine parts, just look at D20 Cybercape's Total Organ Replacement and Warhammer 40k's Dreadnoughts, and Appleseed's Briarios. It would be complex, and there would be a lot of mistakes early on, but I'd say you could transfer your consciousness from one kind of storage system (your brain) to another (a hard drive) with enough effort. Numbness would be a major problem, though. Not being able to breathe, or eat, or sleep (though a power down/recharge cycle might work) would feel rather awkward and empty. It wouldn't be worth it, in my opinion, but it would be ideal for a special branch of military or something of the like.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Do you have any idea how many floppies it would take to store a human mind? We don't have the space!

We have the internet. That's enough for Chuck Norris. A human mind should be simple enough.

But you said floppy disks. The Internet is all on HDD's and SSD's. Even with those you'd need a sizable warehouse to store a human consciousness.

 

[Easykill]

I don't believe in a soul. Because of that, I've developed a rather complex system of beliefs that instead involve the "self". Ha. It might be because of that I see it as obvious that anything that shares your beliefs, your way of thinking, and your memories IS you. Doesn't matter if it's a robot or not. Furthermore, what's wrong with robots? There's far too much robot-racism.

 

[Dorian]

Do you have any idea how many floppies it would take to store a human mind? We don't have the space!

We have the internet. That's enough for Chuck Norris. A human mind should be simple enough.

But you said floppy disks. The Internet is all on HDD's and SSD's. Even with those you'd need a sizable warehouse to store a human consciousness.

When I said put in the floppy, I meant figuratively. I know it wouldn't fit on a floppy, but it was a lot quicker to type than to connect everything to the huge hard drive and mount it somewhere on the body.