Indirect Mind Uploading:
Using AI to Avoid Staying Dead
Paul Almond
page 13 of 13
Conclusion
The idea has been discussed that recording a lot of information about your life and storing this information so that it is available in the future, after your biological death, could allow a software model of your mind to be constructed by using very powerful computers available in the future. Although such a computer model would not resemble your mind in every detail it would still be very similar to your mind and there may be good grounds, if this happens, for regarding yourself as still being alive.
This method has a distinct advantage over other suggestions for copying minds: it requires no technological advances to capture the data and this could be done now, so that the data could be used in the future.
Philosophical issues do arise. The two most important issues are the ones that are relevant in discussions of direct uploading, that is to say the more "conventional" method proposed for copying human minds:
- the strong AI issue: can computers be conscious and have minds in the same way that we can?
- the identity issue: would the software model of you actually be you, or would it merely be someone else who is acting like you?
Paul Almond of the UK is an independent researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He has written many articles concerning the idea of a hierarchical system within AI and proposes improvements in the way it may be accomplished.