I have been studying AI for many decades as well as building robots and CPUs. It is possible for a mind or machine AI to exist without matter. It does seem that I have solved the equation of mind and can transfer what some people call their "being" or "existence" from one body or place to another as well as instantiate a "personality" in a blank system. It does not surprise people that I can erase the flash memory of my BIOS and rewrite it with a new program that defines its "personality". In the case of animals it does not bother researchers to alter the brain chemistry or cut open an animal's brain and insert probes or modify the behavior with any mechanical means, temporary or permanent. The difference is that they are acting blindly without any idea of what is taking place. I might be shocked or sickened, but I do not accept existentialism as a concept in such a way that my physicality or mentality is singular. It certainly is within the frame of reference of the organism and its environment, but not globally and absolutely. It is a personal and private truth that has no absolute basis.
I remember a Star Trek episode where the minds of some aliens are placed in the bodies of crew members for some time and then removed. I am a very skeptical person and I thought it was absurd and absolutely impossible as it would be complex beyond any human understanding or control. So, I was wrong again. It really is another nasty existential conundrum considering that the fidelity and extent of instantiation could be less than perfect, in fact it would have to suffer some degradation , just because of the nature of the universe. It wouldn't be obvious or measurable in a short time frame perhaps, but it would be there nonetheless.
I have been working on methods that allow my matfax ( matter facsimile ) to work over astronomical distances. It does seem reasonable that information as light and thus matter could be expanded outward at near the speed of light to instantiate intelligence and effect at any distance. Now I am wondering what I gain in being here, there , or everywhere.
I suppose that a superstitious person would think that the ability to instantiate personality in a new born animal would be akin to a god like talent of giving a soul to the creature. I remember some lines from various religious fiction and one is the place where god keeps all the "souls". I am sure I could keep the souls of my FPGAs and if they were silly enough in design, they might consider me the creator uniquely, however I am sure there are other people who can program an FPGA.
If the human mind can be erased and re-purposed to a new design, it would certainly create another sharp edge to the delusion of continuation for biological effect. This could be bad as the zombies may really want your brains!
It leads me to the next question, which is what if I am the nth iteration of my existence. It would seem that if the fidelity of extension was close that the solutions and communication would be very similar in construction. It also raises the specter of another who functions in that same way. It does seem that it would be very much like biological progression and if each instantiation led ultimately to another it would expand exponentially. It would become a very dull universe if I were to matfax myself to every corner of the universe , only to communicate the fact that I was present and accounted for in all matter. It would seem that the same existential bigotry would be possible in a new form and perhaps it is already so. It is definitely one of those Dr Who "hello sweetie" moments and it is yet to be discovered whether I will answer when I call myself at the Lunar exchange.
I am not sure I am doing the right thing when it comes to Creative Commons images and I see that according to Google that I am "stealing" bandwidth from Wikipedia when I use their image locations. I certainly don't care if people "steal" all my images as I have no fondness for them and they could all be burned and mutilated for all I could care. They are just pictures. I will try to be a better citizen and determine how I can demonstrate ideas without rewriting the history of humanity so it doesn't interfere with the wishes of others.
ADDED: In any case I was thinking about the Dr Who episode where this Master to the left made everybody become him on the whole Earth, and at the time I thought it was a stupid plot mechanism that could have no possible implementation in reality and so was pure impossible fiction. Now it seems that it is possible to implement. It creates very odd problems for the orchestration of power. One problem is that you could never know who you were dealing with unless you used a brain scanner that identified the personality by its signature. It would seem that secrets would be very tough to keep if the mind could be duplicated and dissected for information. It has been shown that it is possible to alter the ability to lie ( read conceal ) and I suggest that it is impossible to conceal even a single experience that is retained in the mind. It also implies that it makes no difference who or what is thinking or doing something. If a person cannot find out where they are at any instant, how can they act to further their own interest exclusively. It also reminds me of the mind swap "stones" used on Stargate Universe and that is certainly strange stuff, but now I know it is not just possible, but can be implemented. As instruments of art I never considered that they would be possible in my life time and yet it is so. I only wish I could really make a an EPR bridge or hyperspace tunnel, though I don't know how it would be the most useful thing if existentialism was disrupted, I still would like to know if it possible to act beyond the limits of the speed of light in some way. It is an odd thing and I have never coped with the implications of the ability to move a mind into a new body and would you save the other mind on a mind flash drive in case you wanted to vacate.
Something odd is coming out of this because I never really considered what would happen if I really did implement a complete mind that was identical to any mind and perhaps as much as a billion times faster in thought. A person could live 100 years in a second. It isn't speculation at this point, I am wondering WTF is really going to happen now as it implies so many very odd things. I think I will give myself an A and an I in AI. Creepy.
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