A common misconception is that it's just copying memories. I would not be a transfer of consciousness, that would just be making a copy of a person who might think they're the original.

Anyway, it does get into philosophical areas, and maybe capsuleers actually wonder about whether they're really themselves or just a copy.

To me, taking an instantaneous snapshot of the brain, destroying the original, and re-creating that snapshot elsewhere is essentially transferring it.

Quantum entangled pairs? The actual transfer itself isn't what I find to be problematic, its the fact that is a process or action being transferred. I'm glad it's actually just copying, because thats much easier to explain.

If that's copying then so is Star Trek transporter technology. Every Star Trek character would be the copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of the original. For that matter, each person would be a copy of themselves seven years ago, since all of a human body's cells are replaced every seven years or so.

Copying implies making a duplicate, leaving the original intact. When you copy a file on a computer, you have the original and the copy. When you move a file in a computer, you delete the original, transfer the bits, and recreate the file somewhere else on the computer.

So unless you believe in some metaphysical "soul", the consciousness is basically the state of the brain and the ongoing process of it working. If you capture that and recreate it elsewhere, that's transferring it.

It does feel awful Cylon-y, doesn't it.

If you want to call destructive "copying" copying then okay whatever floats your boat. Do you consider yourself a copy of yourself from 7 years ago? After all, all your cells are copies (and inexact ones at that) of your cells then. Your consciousness is running on new "hardware" in a different place than it was 7 years ago.

It's not copying. With a few rare exceptions in the novels, a consciousness never exists in more than one place at a time.

Seriously, everyone just needs to invest in the 200 or so hours it takes to watch all 4 season of BSG and the associated movies and then they will know how this works...and watch Doll House...

I watched BSG twice, actually. It's a good show, but the ending gets a little weird.

A wizard does it.
The REAL reason for our immortality.
There are wizards,and they use magic.

SPOILER WARNING
The ending I liked overall, I was like "WOOOOOOOOW" when the connection to our reality was revealed, though the ditching of the technology seemed really really stupid to me, like they didn't think that level of technology would never get developed again just because they ditched it. I suppose the tech ditching had to happen to make things make sense with our timeline.

Terminology aside, the parts that perform the actions don't matter, as long as the action itself (mind) persists. If each of my brain cells were gradually replaced by a machine which copied its exact function, then my mind process would not end, and my viewpoint into reality would remain the same.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I wrote a detailed post, hit "post," it didn't post and brought me back to the drafting screen, and then it saved over my previous draft. I even had a clever way of suggesting suspension of disbelief. You guys are just going to have to deal with this discussion on your own. Here are some talking points:

• No word in philosophy for what we call "soul" (i.e. experiential being, minus all the prelife/afterlife debate) -- no idea why
• Clone =/= Original (see The Prestige)
• Therefore, each time we die it is a permanent death
• However, jump clones suggest persistence of consciousness
• Hence, EVE universe is advanced enough to preserve a stream of qualia across physical manifestations
• Oversimplified: domino effect, consciousness = kinetic energy, body = domino

Read that paper, not convinced, definitely doesn't work in this context because it isn't gradual or continuous. The way to make this work would be to suggest a singular consciousness is in all the clones at all times but must be dormant in all but one at any time, and that would be a big leap philosophically.

Of course, none of this really works philosophically except the idea that each clone is a distinct individual consciousness, which doesn't align with the jump clone concept, so go ahead and suspend the hell outta your disbelief as far as I'm concerned.

I think I rather leave religion and other problematic weirdness out, and just keep things based on science, and physically grounded philosophy.
Also, I don't want this thread getting locked because a holy war starts.

Its a misconception that because religion deals wih the supernatural, it isn't possible to be rational with it. As long as conversation remains courteous, then there should be no problem. The problem arises when someone allows themselves to get offended that you disagree, and tries to shut down the opposing opinion not through logic but by smearing it.

Contrary to popular belief, science does not preclude religion, but merely opens more unanswerable questions. Its a form of kick the can, where the basic problem only gets pushed further down the road. Of course, it answers many questions we have about the natural world also.

As Aristotle said; "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain an idea without accepting it."

/rant, back to DUST! :D

You're a wizard 'arry

You're a wizard Harry