Death could be averted by ‘downloaded brains’, British futurologist says
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050522/323/fjiiv.html
LONDON (AFP) - Death could become a thing of the past by the mid-21st century as computer technology becomes sophisticated enough for the contents of a brain to be “downloaded” onto a supercomputer, according to a leading British futurologist…
This has been a constant Sci-Fi theme for many, many years. (Probably more years than I’ve been alive)
I’ve been downloading my brain for the past two weeks… into tissue paper, though, rather than a computer. Sinus infections really blow.
lucky that’s not ACTUALLY your brains… it wouldn’t just blow, it’d also stupidize.
“In the year 2525…
If man is still alive…”
Missy
Oh, but it does stupidize. Ever tried to do anything mentally challenging when your sinuses are all congested? I sometimes forget how to tie my shoes. Ugh.
Hmmm… “stupidize”… isn’t that when you order the extra burger patty and the even larger pack of grease-soaked fries, and the super duper cup of ice with a little soda around it?
“Uh.. yeah… I’d like to stupidsize that…uh…”
edited to relieve jsluder of his ammo. 
well um… no annie… Sometimes, I actually AM that hungry…
But yes jsluder, I know what you mean.
SOAD (System of a Down) was in Grease? Broadway, or the movie? 
I really don’t know if I’d want that. Reduced to data and just sitting there in a little box, twiddling my virtual thumbs and waiting to be accessed…I’d go MAD.
I would not want to live forever.
I am a little bit afraid of dying, but living forever would make life meaningless because if we knew we would always be alive, our mistakes, successes and other choices would not matter at all.
Well, really, I’ve always felt an exact copy, no matter how good, is just a copy, and you’d be dead anyway. The copy would be someone or something else, even if it believes it’s you. I figured on Star Trek, when they beamed someone somewhere, they were killing the original and a duplicate, who believed he was the original, took over.
Tony
I’m still waiting for boosterspice.
Soylent Green is PEOPLE!!!
And they doesn’t taste very nice, does they, Precious?
That or the root. Although I don’t really like the idea of being so smart I have no free will.
I see. Then I submit that every time all the electrons in all the billions of your cells have swapped places with other electrons that were something else before being part of you–every time that happens as a complete cycle–you are not you, but a duplicate taking over from the one which gradually died off.
I see. Then I submit that every time all the electrons in all the billions of your cells have swapped places with other electrons that were something else before being part of you–every time that happens as a complete cycle–you are not you, but a duplicate taking over from the one which gradually died off.
I’ve thought about that. The thing is, if you were really yourself or a copy that thought it was you, there’d be no way of knowing the difference.
Have you ever thought about all the circumstances that brought about your existence, up to which sperm in the batch managed to fertilize the egg? If you were conceived a minute later or a day later, or whatever, would you still be you? Sure, you’d probably look different, etc, but would you be the same consciousness? Of course, there’d be no way to tell. The whole idea of self-awareness and the awareness of ‘others’ is kind of weird in ways.
I heard there is a Hindu belief that all our individual consciousnesses are being dreamt by the same god and our separateness is an illusion.
Tony
And it’s an imperfect copy, too. That’s why we get old. 
Actually, jsluder, now that you mention it, I think you’re exactly right. It is imperfect transcription that causes our decline.