When we master quantum computing, could we theoretically download our minds into it? Would we then be able to exist without a physical body and travel at the speed of light? Are there any laws of physics which preclude this?
There are folks I know who could get theirs on a floppy.
That’s easy! I’ve already downloaded my mind into an electronic address book!
No, I don’t think it’ll be that easy. If you eventually can download the contents of your mind ( and I doubt that)… will your concienceness go with it?
I’d think we’d better get sorted out just what consciousness is, first.
It’d feel pretty strange - to exist without a physical anchor, whizzing through the Web. What would the mind perceive, without physical senses? Nothing? Sounds pretty close to my idea of hell. Make a great prison, though.
Without physical and mental interaction from others, wouldn’t that be considered a dream-state? Ergo…nonsense.
As far as putting your own mind onto a computer so your great great great…grandchildren can hear your life story and get your read on current events…my guess is yes. People don’t dramatically change personalities that much as life goes on, so if you programmed your current memories, added random upcoming events, took into consideration your educational background and tradional sources of information, I think there is a fair chance your distant relatives could calculate how you would vote in the general election in the year 3000.
Would downloading your mind’s information (even conciousness, if possible) into a machine make the machine you, or merely a copy? If we can copy a mind (e.c., i.p.) without erasing the information, does the computer become a second conciousness of you, or an offshoot? Myself, I think it’s only a copy. It just might not realize it’s a copy.
I’d do it if I didn’t have to leave my body, because even if I wouldn’t exist like that, there’d suddenly be a version of me that would, and I know he’d like to know how it feels. Then he (in the machine) could tell me (in the fleshy canister) if I’d like it or not, and I’d feel either smug or disappointed depending on what he told me, and we’d both feel better about it, now that we both knew how it would feel.
I don’t know about travelling around at the speed of light, because anybody whose mind is in a computer would have to either a) move the computer at the speed of light or b) transmit yourself to another machine at the speed of light. If I were to beam my data stream out into space without it being received, the conciousness wouldn’t perceive it, since it’d just be a series of radio waves with no ability to act with itself in order to create thought. If it was received, then recompiled into the original format by some third party or automatic file system, it wouldn’t have any knowledge of travel at all - just a stream of conciousness that moves directly from being frozen in the state that it was sent in to just after recompilation. Actually, there’d be no memory of being frozen, or of having been frozen, just the realization that I must have been frozen to make such a transmission possible.
If I were to send a copy of my digital self out, then erase my local self, would the me that gets sent become me? No. That’s a copy, and my self was that was me (my current conciousness) was destroyed when I erased it. To assume that my conciouness will somehow jump from where it was copied to where it was received once the local is destroyed needs a concept of a singular spirit (for lack of a better term) that follows a singular conciousness… and I don’t want to get into a discussion about souls.
Since I can transmit myself, can I just send a copy (I don’t actually have to give you my files if I want to send an attatchment to you via email - I’ll still have it once it’s sent)? That copy will think it’s me, and in an information form, it can be an exact copy so it will be as much me as I am. Is it me? No, because I’m still me; I only sent an exact copy of myself. But that’s another me, and will think he’s me. Hell, I could send a whole bunch of copies, and they’d all know they were me, because they would be as much me as I am (paging BraheSilver’s mental clone army, please pick up the white phone). My conciousness wouldn’t stop, and the conciousness sent would have the exact same memories I would - up to the point of being put in a static state for transmission, after which his memories would be those of events that transpired after being reenabled. I (the original that is being copied) am me, and the copies are also me. Is there any reason to assume that I’m more me than they are (and hence deserve any spirit that may be hanging around if my body isn’t using it any more), just because my conciousness was never briefly stopped?
This is why I could never mix Star Trek with alchohol. 
I’d rave about how the characters died multiple times per episode. (Though in ST apparently there was some sort of metaphysical presence, since one was aware of the process of being transmitted [Barkley’s transporter phobia])
This also tells me why I should never mix Straight Dope and alchohol. 
:eek: Oh no not me, I’d download my mind and my bestfriend would loose it, Just like everything else that she has lost in that mysterious big black hole called her pocket/bedroom/car. Take your pick it could be anywhere… LOL 