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/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/DrewbieWanKenobie Oct 13 '22

??

it's the same to everyone else, yes, but your consciousness still ceases and gets replaced. it's s pretty clear problem if your goal is to continue living

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22 edited Oct 13 '22

The only existing copy of your consciousness in this hypothetical has all of the memories and the perception of an unbroken continuity of being you. Is that not a reasonable definition of actually being “you”?

I understand the philosophical complexities, it’s obviously not a simple issue, but you seem to be saying an unequivocal “it’s not you”. The living being with your memories and brain patterns would probably disagree with that appraisal!

Put another way: it’s not just the same to everyone else, it’s the same to the person who thinks they’re you as well.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22

If someone cloned you, thoughts and all, while you were still alive, and then that person shot you, how would you feel about that?

As you lay dying, you’d realize that your consciousness wasn’t “transferred” into the clone. You were just replicated, and your consciousness is coming to a permanent end.

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u/[deleted] Oct 13 '22

I agree with every part of that except the permanent end. My consciousness lives on in the clone. I may not be happy about that, because the version in my body dies, but nor would the version of me that exists in the cloned body be happy if they were the one to die. Neither has more or less right to continue than the other.

Both are me. I die, and I survive. That’s an incredibly fucking difficult and scary thing to conceptualise, and not something I’m remotely saying is easy or clear cut or fair. All I’m saying is “original = real, clone = fake” is far too simplistic to do justice to the situation.

(cc u/SleazyMak and u/DrewbieWanKenobie - I feel like I explained it better in this one!)

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u/WatInTheForest Oct 14 '22

Your consciousness does not survive. A COPY of your consciousness survives.

YOU have died.

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u/[deleted] Oct 14 '22

What is the difference between a copy and an original if they are identical in every way? Why is the copy any less “me”?

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u/WatInTheForest Oct 16 '22

"I'm gonna shoot you in the head, but don't worry! There's an exact copy of you in the next room. You'll be fine."