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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RareBreed" data-source="post: 9090735" data-attributes="member: 6945590">100% agree.I know someone who is really into Transhumanism, both fiction and reality.  He's really, really hoping that there will be some kind of mind/consciousness download before he dies so that he can achieve immortality (ala Altered Carbon or GURPS Transhuman, or Posthuman Studio's Eclipse Phase). Firstly, I don't think it's possible.  A dash of chaos theory and the fact that we <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-cloning_theorem" target="_blank">can't clone qubits or any other quantum state </a>means that Star Trek Teleporter technology is not 100% the same you after teleporting, and storing memories/consciousness is not possible if there's any kind of quantum component to it.But more importantly, I question the need for why we would want that.  We are always changing.  Every breath we take, every time we think a thought, we change.  It's been shown that our memories are kind of like analog devices.  Every time we recall something, we <a href="https://theconversation.com/are-memories-reliable-expert-explains-how-they-change-more-than-we-realise-106461" target="_blank">can alter the memory itself</a>.  I am not the same person I was when I was 13.  What happened to 13yr old me?  The idea of a permanent "self" is an illusion.I am also not against AI per se.  But we've been burned by technology too many times not to stop and think about what we're doing. I personally think AI is our only hope for the future...but only if we get it right.  If we get it wrong, I don't think it's hyperbole to say that it can be an existential threat  And I don't mean Skynet trying to eradicate us. I mean AI manipulating us, intentionally or not.  We're already being manipulated by AI.  Recommendation engines are just early forms of machine learning.  Just wait until the deep fake news bots start churning out stuff.  I see plenty of damage that AI amok can do even if it's not intentionally trying to do harm to us.Sadly, humans have a tendency to keep doing what they are doing until it is too late to change course.</blockquote>

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