Do you hope that Mind Uploading will be a thing before you die?

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Zoe_118@reddit

Hell no. Makes for good sci-fi, though.

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horsesmadeofconcrete@reddit

Mind uploading is not me… I’ll still be dead. A copy isn’t the real thing. I do want to be cryogenically frozen and hopefully revived

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ca77ywumpus@reddit

It's an interesting idea, but my mind isn't that special. I'm not sure I add any intellectual value now let alone in the future.

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docthrobulator@reddit

I see a more horrifying version like in Soma happening

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WhatAreYouSaying05@reddit

It wouldn’t really be you. As soon as you try to transfer your consciousness you will die, and all that’s left is an AI with your memories pretending it’s you

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potentalstupidanswer@reddit

So I'll be dead and a computer program will attempt to impersonate me for its own amusement? Nah.

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Yeah I don't think it would be possible - YOUR consciousness would end, but a highly advanced AI approximation with all your memories would still exist pretending to be use. Of course, they would ADVERTISE it as uploaded your consciousness. Tech companies are some of the most dystopian, evil things to exist in the world right now so no way would I ever want to entrust them with something like this, even if it were feasibly possible.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

Tech companies are some of the most dystopian, evil things to exist in the world right now so no way would I ever want to entrust them with something like this, even if it were feasibly possible.

I think there was a time when people had more trust in tech companies that they wouldn't be as inherently revolted by the idea. . .but not with the more we see and hear about what big tech does with our information, how they act, how generally scummy and evil they are.

20 or 25 years ago this would have been seen as cool and awesome. . .now it's pure dystopia.

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RansomReville@reddit

Making a copy of me doesn't help me not die. My mind isn't so important it needs preserving. I like it because I exist in there, if I don't then it ain't worth a damn to me.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

I'm still waiting for warp drive.

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Canada_Haunts_Me@reddit

Maybe I'll still be around in 2063.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

The problem with living until First Contact in 2063 is that World War III happens in 2053, and there's also the Second Civil War that happens not long before that.

Seriously, the entire 21st century in Star Trek pretty much sucks. The whole point of Enterprise was that it wasn't until the 2150's that things would even sorta be like what we think of with the nice future of Trek, and even THAT was more a prequel.

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Brother_To_Coyotes@reddit

I don’t want to live on this planet anymore .jpg.

It’s a common fantasy of mine to think about all of us being able to sort by ideology and gtf away from each other.

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whatsthis1901@reddit

Yeah lol. I'm still waiting for something like Rosie the Robot maid from the Jetsons.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

No, absolutely not.

I would never trust some horrible tech company to create some bad AI simulacrum of me.

The entire idea sounds repugnant. I already don't trust big tech firms very much, turning myself into literally just software running on one of their servers? Sounds like a special kind of Hell.

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Meilingcrusader@reddit

Absolutely not. I'm quite happy to live the life I have, and when my time comes, God willing, to go to heaven

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DerthOFdata@reddit

So beyond the technological singularity then?

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Brother_To_Coyotes@reddit

No. I’m tired already. I can’t imagine being immortal machine code.

What am I supposed to do? Ranch my descendants for all time?

Trap me in a machine and you’ve basically made WH40K abominable intelligence.

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Current_Poster@reddit

I don't expect it to be an option.

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Begle1@reddit

Consumer chatbots can already tell me quite a bit about myself, by crawling through all the tens of thousands of postings made under the same online username I've been using for 25+ years.

The technology is already there, to ask the AI for my opinion on things, and have it use my writing style to parrot something I'd be likely to say in the style I'd tend to use.

In practice, what would be different about "mind uploading"? It can already create a digital me that will behave like me. But the real me is a bunch of chemical processes taking place in a leaky meat bag, and that will never be replicated, not should it, because it's disgusting.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

I don't know if you've seen the short-lived Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica, but that's basically how the Cylons got started.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

Heck no. There's no continuity between myself and the "cloud" version, so it would just be a creepy digital clone.

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hx87@reddit

Given the behavior of the tech corporations that would provide such a service, fuuuuuck no. If the entire tech stack was FOSS and running on open hardware funded entirely by public sources or donations, maybe.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

I suppose I'd rather the experience machine over death, so yes.

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Weaselburg@reddit

You'd still be dead, though, it's just a copy.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

Would I? It seems to me that the mind is fundamentally physical thing, and if that's the case, than transferring consciousness should be possible on principle.

Whether we could ever actually do it is another question. But why not try? If it doesn't work, I'm too dead to care.

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Weaselburg@reddit

Would I? It seems to me that the mind is fundamentally physical thing, and if that's the case, than transferring consciousness should be possible on principle.

To oversimplify;

When you usually move data around, you aren't actually moving it, you're copying it. Downloading something is just a copy of the original data; a cloud save is the same. It has the same contents, but it is a new version of it.

You transferring your consciousness into a machine would almost certainly be the same unless we find out star-wars level physics breaking stuff - your meat-sack memories are copied into a machine variant, your original body is either separate or dead.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

If what makes me who I am is my personality, my memories, etc., what cause do we have to say that a perfect copy of me is not me? Would the uploading process be meaningfully different than any other lapse in consciousness?

Ultimately, I wouldn't bet my life on it. But if I was on my deathbed, I see little reason not to try. It probably won't work, but the rewards for success are great and the consequence of failure low.

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albertnormandy@reddit

what cause do we have to say that a perfect copy of me is not me?

A copy of you is not you. You're giving control of your memories, emotions, your "core essence" to a machine and allowing that machine (and whoever controls the machine) to use it however it wants. We don't understand the brain well enough to understand consciousness, but we do understand computers since we couldn't build them if we didn't. If you understand something you can manipulate it. If I have "you" uploaded to my computer I can do with you whatever I want. I can tweak your programming to make you say whatever I want. That is not utopia.

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therealdrewder@reddit

It'll never work. Consciousness is analog

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Weaselburg@reddit

what cause do we have to say that a perfect copy of me is not me?

It's not you experiencing it, it's a copy, or a clone. During cell division we don't say they're both the same, do we?

But if I was on my deathbed, I see little reason not to try

I mean, sure, I can see that.

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KingGorilla@reddit

My idea of an actual mind uploading is a multistage process akin to the ship of theseasus. A hard drive is implanted into your brain that your brain can interface with and store and retrieve memories from. And then parts of your brain are removed, the memories and neouronal architecture are digitized and that copy is reintegrated back into your brain. So you would essentially forget something and then remember it again once the replacement is added. I think the process would feel like a steady increase in cognitive function, you'd process concepts faster and you'd notice things are easier to remember.

If I were to write a scifi book about it the scientists would start by replacing brain sections in patients with Alzheimer's and dementia first. They would scan areas of the brain with amyloid plaques and replace them with digital versions that refill the plaque areas with either hard drive space that the brain can refill with digital connection equivalents or it can be written before implantation.

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UnicornPencils@reddit

I'm surprised most people here are so against it! I'd give it a go. It's not like dead me is going to care lol.

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aksers@reddit

Why…? :o

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Sabertooth767@reddit

Why not? Any amount of pleasure brought by the experience machine is infinitely greater than the pleasure brought by death, as death is the end.

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stellalunawitchbaby@reddit

Doubt it, but I’m sure it’s being worked on (and monetized).

But similarly I have enjoyed the show “Upload.”

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

Me too! Finally, someone else who watched it.

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

Only if continuity is assured. If it'll actually be me.

I forget who it was who posited this, but someone once wondered if the teleporter in Star Trek disintegrates you completely, and then a new 'you' walks out the other end, unaware that it isn't you? "What if hell is filling up with Captain Kirk clones?" they asked.

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TheJuiceIsL00se@reddit

I think death is what gives life value. I would never stop anyone from uploading but I wouldn’t upload.

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schlockabsorber@reddit

The quest for immortality on Earth is strictly for ultracapitalists and supervillains. I hope it never happens.

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ScreamingLightspeed@reddit

Kinda but I'd rather we focus on keeping the human body young and healthy for longer lol

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MrLongWalk@reddit

I hope no such thing ever comes to be

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Kellaniax@reddit

Why?

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MrLongWalk@reddit

I feel like mortality does more good than harm

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Apocalyptic0n3@reddit

I don't really care. I wouldn't participate either way. When I die, I'm dead. I don't want to prolong that or end up in a new sleeve at some point.

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Many_Pea_9117@reddit

That's not "you" and the show does a mediocre job of explaining this fact. The upload is a digital version of you, ie a clone. No, I don't need a clone of myself to live forever. It'd be nice if I myself could, but I don't see any benefit to me personally to have such a thing. People who missed this point miss a lot of the significance of the shows commentary.

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Delicious-Cress-1228@reddit

IIRC from several years ago, this community was very against the "it's a copy, not really me" argument. So strongly against it that these discussions frustrated me a little bit lol.

Nice to see that it's now a popular answer, judging by your comment and another being toward the top with no pushback. I'm curious what has changed.

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rawbface@reddit

That's nothing but science fiction. Our brains do not work in the same way that computers do at all. There is no set of 1's and 0's that can encompass the entirety of human thought, and a database of the cellular neural connections for one single human is already an astronomical impossible-to-store volume of information.

At most, we could have an AI model trained on our behavior to approximate our personality. Which to me sounds horrifying.

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backbodydrip@reddit

If you've ever seen Black Mirror, you'll understand this is a fuck no from me.

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Distwalker@reddit

Mom died 10 years ago. If there were an perfect AI replica of her, I think I would talk to it. I think I would be transfixed by it. It would remember me as a child. It would emulate her love for me that I miss so badly. I want to talk to her so much but I would always know that it is a simulation. Knowing it really isn't her, although it is a perfect simulation right down to her voice.... I don't know. I just don't know.

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HairyDadBear@reddit

I would rather not upload my mind into a human creation. There was a funny YouTube skit that had a guy basically trapped in a tiny box because the company didn't pay for storage lol

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Gladyskravitz99@reddit

What a horrible thought! Also doesn't seem pertinent to this sub?

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Konigwork@reddit

Yes.

Not because I’d use it, because I could go and hit “delete” and horrify everyone who legitimately believed that a LLM or AGI model of what it thinks a person’s personality would be is the real person.

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Distwalker@reddit

If you upload your mind, it will just be a facsimile of you. Your consciousness will stay in your body and it will be lights out when you die. It is your facsimile that will live on but you won't be there.

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OceanPoet87@reddit

No, that's dumb.

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Reader124-Logan@reddit

No and no thank you.

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Sea2Chi@reddit

I can only imagine the hellish dystopian nightmare that would create.

Well, you're body is dead, but you're conscious is technically alive so your estate will remain intact and life insurance will not be paid out.

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Kellaniax@reddit

I don't see how an uploaded copy of me would be a continuation of my consciousness, so no.

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alkatori@reddit

I'll give it a go.

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Curmudgy@reddit

I don’t believe it could happen before I die, so I don’t waste my hope on it.

But I do enjoy both the Bobiverse series, which begins with this premise, and Upload (on Amazon Prime), which is also based on this premise. Good stories, but not within our abilities in my lifespan. Maybe in yours.

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Donohoed@reddit

I'm afraid of feeling eternally hungry but unable to eat

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Due_Satisfaction2167@reddit

Sure, a copy of me deserves to suffer endlessly. Since there isn’t a real hell, we might as well build one for ourselves.

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Libertas_@reddit

No. I want to die and my body be left to rest in the Earth. I don't want anything do with the cloud or AI.

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MisterPassenger@reddit

I dunno, it just seems like sci fi has presented an abundance of options to showcase why that idea might be potentially horrific. Tho what if your mind is already uploaded on death to some naturally occurring data base we don’t yet understand? Maybe, maybe

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TheFacetiousDeist@reddit

No. When I’m dead I won’t care and regarding the pain, uploading is possibly the same amount of pain.

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dangleicious13@reddit

No

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Comprehensive_Yak442@reddit

Emotions like boredom, excitement, regret, relief, rage, love, and desire are all deeply tied to the brain and the hormones and neurotransmitters our bodies produce. Without these, would our minds even be the same? What would we be without the human emotions that shape our experiences?

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sto_brohammed@reddit

Absolutely not. They'll just make the digital copy of my mind work for eternity. No thank you. Pull the plug, toss me into the dumpster.

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toxicjellyfish666@reddit

OP, have you ever played Soma?

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AntisocialHikerDude@reddit

Sounds cool. I don't think it would actually be "me", just a copy. But I don't suppose the copy would care too much. Maybe it would get to talk to distant future descendants of mine.

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ViewtifulGene@reddit

Absolutely the fuck not. The end result would be posthumous slavery. I'd no longer exist or receive compensation, but my thoughts would still be extracted for value.

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moonlets_@reddit

Fuck no.

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BuggIsland@reddit

Hell no, I've seen that Black Mirror episode. Fuck your toast!

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Salty_Dog2917@reddit

If they could throw me into programs where I could be in like the game of thrones universe or Ancient Rome. Yeah I would try it for a bit

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BuryatMadman@reddit

Yes I would like to live forever

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

No.

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cornfarm96@reddit

No way. When I die, I just want to enjoy my afterlife.

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TheBimpo@reddit

This sounds horrifying.

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NoAbbreviations4545@reddit

Absolutely not

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Mysteryman64@reddit

I think it would be neat, but I also don't really believe in the concept of a "mind transfer".

Let's be generous and assume we solve The Chinese Room problem and can genuinely say that we know the Mind Upload is really "thinking" and not just spitting out stuff automatically.

That's still not me. That's a new "lifeform" based on my pattern. From an external viewpoint, they both are "me", but from an internal viewpoint, I'm fated to cease to exist at some point. Either when the body gives out or maybe when I fall asleep tonight, or maybe I'm dying a million times per second every single time my brain reacts to some stimuli.

That said, despite the fact that I know that it's not "me", there is a little part of me that likes the idea that I'm could be not so much an individual as much as a collection of selves.

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Kestrel_Iolani@reddit

Future AI hallucinations can be dismissed with "sure, grandpa, time for bed."

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JBoy9028@reddit

No. Death is the sweet release from those haunting adolescent memories, and nobody else needs to know about them either.

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Myfourcats1@reddit

No thanks. I did see that Black Mirror episode though.

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sneezhousing@reddit

Nope no way

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BobsleddingToMyGrave@reddit

Watch the movie " the final cut". In the future, they have a device that retrieves your memories. A person, called a cutter, then takes your memories and makes a "film" which is played at your funeral and uploaded on your tombstone.

You'll like this.

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Necessary_Echo8740@reddit

Without continuity of consciousness I don’t see a point at all.

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cdb03b@reddit

100% no.

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bloodectomy@reddit

Only if my new body can have some kind of neutron laser cannon mounted in the chest, to punish those who disobey me

Farnsworth noises

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

No.

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Ok_Entrepreneur_8509@reddit

I am mostly hoping for the robot body. VR existence seems like too much work. Having to figure out if gravity has been hacked or reprogrammed sounds exhausting.

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Careless-Ability-748@reddit

no

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YellojD@reddit

Absolutely fucking not.

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Sufficient_Emu2343@reddit

Hell yes. I want to shoot an infinite number of copies of me into outer space and see who picks me up.

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NewOrleansLA@reddit

No because people will be making copies of you and collecting other people and all kinds of other weird stuff like that.

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PaleDreamer_1969@reddit

Knowing America, someone with monetize it to death.

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jonny300017@reddit

Lol like other countries don’t run on money.

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Jorost@reddit

Yes! I am eagerly awaiting the Singularity.

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InevitableRhubarb232@reddit

Fuck no

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jonny300017@reddit

Fuck no. I want less bullshit tech in my life not more. Please let me rest in peace. Jesus.

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Vachic09@reddit

Hell no

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Danibear285@reddit

Lol what does this have to do with the American Experience?

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baalroo@reddit

As long as it's not an American company that comes up with it. Don't want an Upload sort of digital dystopia.

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Sorry_Nobody1552@reddit

Good point

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huuaaang@reddit

I think it's one of those things that will happen but not in the way most people now think it would work. For example, you could maybe copy your neurons and personality into a computer but your consciousness wouldn't transfer. It would be an "AI" that would merely act like you but when youre brain dies, your individual consciousness is still gone.

I've talk to people who think this is good enough. But that's not at all what I would want or care about. If my consciousness dies/ends, what's the point?

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