I have been asked to mention the following.
The Nature of The Identity \u2014 with Reference to Androids<\/p>\n
The nature of the identity is intimately related to information and information processing. <\/p>\n
The importance and the real nature of information is only now being gradually realised.<\/p>\n
But the history of the subject goes back a long way.<\/p>\n
In ancient Greece, those who studied Nature \u2013 the predecessors of our scientists \u2013 considered that what they studied \u2013 material reality \u2013 Nature \u2013 had two aspects \u2013 form and substance.<\/p>\n
Until recent times all the emphasis was on substance \u2014 what substance(s) subjected to sufficient stress would transmute into gold; what substances in combination could be triggered into releasing vast amounts of energy \u2013 money and weapons \u2013 the usual Homo Sap stuff.<\/p>\n
You take a block of marble \u2013 that is substance. You have a sculptor create a beautiful statue from it \u2013 that is form.<\/p>\n
The form consists of the shapes imposed by the sculptor; and the shapes consist of information. Now, if you were an unfeeling materialistic bastard you could describe the shapes in terms of equations. And if you were an utterly depraved unfeeling materialistic bastard you could have a computer compare the sets of equations from many examples to find out what is considered to be beauty.<\/p>\n
Dr Foxglove \u2013 the Great Maestro of Leipzig, is seated at the concert grand \u2014 playing on a Steinway (of course) with great verve, (as one would expect). In front of him, under a low light, there is a sheet of paper with black marks \u2013 information of some kind \u2013 the music for Chopin\u2019s Nocturne Op. 9, no. 2.<\/p>\n
Aahh! Wonderful. <\/p>\n
Sublime\u2026.<\/p>\n
But \u2026 all is not as it seems\u2026.<\/p>\n
Herr Doktor Foxglove thinks he is playing music.<\/p>\n
A grand illusion my friend! You see, the music \u2013 it is, how you say \u2014 all in the heads of the listeners. <\/p>\n
What the Good Doktor is doing, and doing manfully \u2014 is operating a wooden acoustic-wave generator \u2013 albeit very skilfully, and not just any old wooden acoustic-wave generator \u2013 but a Steinway wooden acoustic-wave generator.<\/p>\n
There is no music in the physical world. The acoustic waves are not music. They are just pressure waves in the atmosphere. The pressure waves actuate the eardrum. And that in turn actuates a part of the inner ear called the cochlea. And that in turn causes streams of neural impulses to progress up into the higher brain.<\/p>\n
Dr Foxglove hits a key on the piano corresponding to 440 acoustic waves per second; this is replicated in a slightly different form within the inner ear, until it becomes a stream of neural impulses\u2026. <\/p>\n
But what the listener hears is not 440 waves or 440 neural impulses or 440 anything \u2013 what the listener hears is one thing \u2013 a single tone.<\/p>\n
The tone is an exact derivative of the pattern of neural impulses. There are no tones in physical reality.<\/p>\n
Tones exist only in the experience of the listener \u2013 only in the experience of the observer.<\/p>\n
And thanks to some fancy processing not only will the listener get the illusion that 440 cycles per second is actually a \u201ctone\u201d \u2013 but a further illusion is perpetrated \u2013 that the tone is coming from a particular direction, that what one is hearing is Dr. Foxglove at the Steinway, over there, under the lights \u2013 that is where the sound is.<\/p>\n
But no, my friend\u2026.<\/p>\n
What the listener is actually listening to is his eardrums. He is listening to a derivative of a derivative \u2026 of his eardrums rattling. <\/p>\n
His eardrums are rattling because someone is operating an acoustic wave generator in the vicinity.<\/p>\n
But what he is hearing is pure information.<\/p>\n
And as for the music \u2026.<\/p>\n
A single note \u2013 a tone \u2013 is neither harmonious nor disharmonious in itself. It is only harmonious or disharmonious in relation to another note.<\/p>\n
Music is derived from ratios \u2013 a still further derivative \u2014 and ratios are pure information.<\/p>\n
Take for example the ratio of 20 Kg to 10 Kg.<\/p>\n
The ratio of 20 Kg to 10 Kg is not 2 Kg.<\/p>\n
The ratio of 20 Kg to 10 Kg is 2 \u2013 just 2 \u2013 pure information.<\/p>\n
20 kg\/10 kg = 2.<\/p>\n
Similarly, we can also show that there is no colour in reality, there are no shapes in reality; depth perception is a derivative \u2013 and just as what one is listening to is the rattling of one\u2019s eardrums \u2013 so what one is watching is the inside of one\u2019s eyeballs \u2013 one is watching the shuddering impact of photons on one\u2019s retina.<\/p>\n
The sensations of sound, of light and colour and shapes are all in one\u2019s mind \u2013 as decodings of neural messages \u2013 which in turn are derivatives of physical processes.<\/p>\n
The wonderful aroma coming from the barbecue is all in one\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
There are no aromas or tastes in reality \u2013 all are conjurations of the mind.<\/p>\n
Like the Old Guy said, all is maya, baby\u2026.<\/p>\n
The only point that is being made here is that Information is too important a subject to be so neglected.<\/p>\n
What you are doing here is at the leading edge beyond the leading edge and in that future Information will be a significant factor.<\/p>\n
What we away back in the dim, distant and bewildered early 21st Century called Information Technology (I.T.) will be seen as Computer Technology (CT) which is all it ever was \u2013 but there will be a real IT in the future.<\/p>\n
Similarly what has been referred to for too long as Information Science will be seen for what it is \u2014 Library Technology.<\/p>\n
Now \u2013 down to work.<\/p>\n
One of the options \u2013 the android \u2013 is to upload all stored data from a smelly old bio body to a cool Designer Body (DB). <\/p>\n
This strategy is based on the unproven but popular belief that one\u2019s identity is contained by one\u2019s memory.<\/p>\n
There are two critical points that need to be addressed.<\/p>\n
The observer is the cameraman \u2014 not the picture. Unless you are looking in a mirror or at a film of yourself, then you are the one person who will not appear in your memory.<\/p>\n
There will be memories of that favourite holiday place, of your favorite tunes, of the emotions that you felt when \u2026 but you will only \u201cappear\u201d in your memories as the point of observation.<\/p>\n
You are the cameraman \u2013 not the picture.<\/p>\n
So, we should view with skepticism ideas that uploading the memory will take the identity with it.<\/p>\n
If somebody loses their memory \u2013 they do not become someone else \u2013 hopping and skipping down the street, <\/p>\n
\u2018Hi \u2013 I\u2019m Tad Furlong, I\u2019m new in town\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n
If somebody loses their memory \u2013 they may well say \u2013 \u2018I do not know my name\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n
That does not mean they have become someone else \u2013 what they mean is \u2018I cannot remember my name\u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n
The fact that this perplexes them indicates that it is still the same person \u2013 it is someone who has lost their name.<\/p>\n
If a person changes their name they do not become someone else; nor do they become someone else if they can\u2019t remember their name \u2013 or as it is more commonly, and more dramatically, and more loosely put \u2013 \u201ccannot remember who they are\u201d.<\/p>\n
So, what is the identity?<\/p>\n
There is the observer \u2013 whatever that is \u2013 and there are observations.<\/p>\n
There are different forms of information \u2013 visual, audible, tactile, olfactory \u2026 which together form the environment of the observer. By \u201cprojection\u201d the environment is observed as being external. The visual image from one eye is compared with that of the other eye to give depth perception. The sound from one ear is compared with that from the other ear to give surround sound. You are touched on the arm and immediately the tactile sensation \u2013 which actually occurs in the mind, is mapped as though coming from that exact spot on your arm.<\/p>\n
You live and have your being in a world of sensation.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that the external world does not exist \u2013 only that our world is the world \u201cinside\u201d \u2013 the place where we hear, and see, and feel, and taste\u2026.<\/p>\n
And all those projections are like \u201cvectors\u201d leading out from a projection spot \u2013 a locus of projection \u2013 the 0,0 spot \u2013 the point which is me seeing and me tasting and me hearing and me scenting even though through the magic of projection I have the idea that the barbeque smells, that there is music in the piano, that the world is full of color, and that my feet feel cold.<\/p>\n
This locus of projection is the \u201cme\u201d \u2013it is the point of observation, the 0,0 reference point. This, the observer not the observation, is the identity \u2026 the me, the 0,0.<\/p>\n
And that 0,0 may be a lot easier to shift than a ton and a half of squashed memories. Memories of being sick; of being tired; of the garden; of your dog; of the sound of chalk on the blackboard, of the humourless assistant bank manager; of the 1982 Olympics; of Sadie Trenton; of Fred\u2019s tow bar; and so on and on and on \u2013<\/p>\n
So \u2013 if memory ain\u2019t the thing \u2014 how do we do it \u2026 upload the identity?
(To be continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been asked to mention the following. The Nature of The Identity \u2014 with Reference to Androids The nature of the identity is intimately related to information and information processing. The importance and the real nature of information is only now being gradually realised. But the history of the subject goes back a long [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,6],"tags":[99,328,329,331,332,327,330],"class_list":["post-2040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neuroscience","category-robotics-ai","tag-ai","tag-androids","tag-cognitive-psychology","tag-cognitive-science","tag-neural-processes","tag-robotics","tag-the-singularity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}