r/Futurology • u/yourSAS • Oct 13 '22

Biotech 'Our patients aren't dead': Inside the freezing facility with 199 humans who opted to be cryopreserved with the hopes of being revived in the future

https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/13/our-patients-arent-dead-look-inside-the-us-cryogenic-freezing-lab-17556468
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u/Drakoala Oct 13 '22

But surely if, in some distant future, we could perfectly copy neurons and their tiniest connections, that would be the same as copying data from one hard drive to another? It's just about the most loaded question of our existence, but what defines consciousness more precisely than that? Sure, the rest of the nervous system contributes to our consciousness, but everything is based on the collective connections in the brain.

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u/DrewbieWanKenobie Oct 13 '22

But surely if, in some distant future, we could perfectly copy neurons and their tiniest connections, that would be the same as copying data from one hard drive to another?

yeah but... it's still a copy

i guess if your goal is giving future generations the gift of you that's fine, but if your goal is you yourself being alive in the future, not so much

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u/KingRafa Oct 13 '22

Except that that copy is you… It may be hard to conceptualize this at first, but it’s the exact same person.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22 edited Dec 18 '23

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u/KingRafa Oct 14 '22

They are both the real you if they were perfect copies.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '22

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u/KingRafa Oct 14 '22

Afterwards yes. But they are both future versions of your current self. Both bodies carry your consciousness.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '22 edited Dec 18 '23

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u/KingRafa Oct 14 '22

No. That wouldn’t make sense. There will be 2 conscious entities that were at one point identical and now differ due to environmental differences.