This is a special post for quick takes by MarkelKori. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
Currently, digital resurrection relies on artifacts such as photographs of a person, their correspondence, or voice recordings. But in the future, when whole brain emulation becomes possible, we will have a far more comprehensive source of information about a deceased person than ever before.
Based on the theory of mind, each of us has a “simulation” of important people in our brains. We will be able to extract these simulations from the WBEs of various people who knew the deceased and analyze cross-referenced memories to avoid confabulations. For example, using Bayesian Truth Serum.
In short, this is a great way to get the most useful and accurate information about a person in the [very] relatively near future.
1I would add that brain memory capacity is over-estimated and my digital exoself has more data than I remember.
1There could be data in your brain even if you could not consciously retrieve it. Also I wouldn't say "brain memory capacity is over-estimated" since there are in fact humans that can train themselves to memorize an insane amount of things.
Yes, there are people with eidetic memory, so we can hope that there is a part of the brain which records everything constantly - maybe I just don't have access to it.
Kim Peek memorized 12000 books, but it is only 12 GB of data - insane for a person but trivial for computer. He also didn't train himself but was a savant.
Typical size of human consciously accessible memory was estimated by Landauer and is 1-2 GB.
In my personal experience, what motivates people most to pursue life extension is not a love of life, but a hatred of death. Economic gain and the maintenance of “healthpan” are even weaker arguments.
Many of those I know who have been fighting death for years and with great effort do so primarily out of a deep hatred for the very idea of death... The idea that subjectivity could ever come to an end against the subject’s will. Judging by Yudkowsky’s early posts, which I sometimes revisit, his motivation regarding transhumanism is (or was) very similar.
Which is strange, because these seem equivalent. Yet we fear death, but we don't have a strong wish to live forever.
I’m not afraid of death. In a way, Epicurus was right: when death comes, you’re no longer here, so what is there to fear?
No, it’s not about fear. I hate death; I feel a deep revulsion and rage toward it.
I’m not afraid to die. I feel no fear when I imagine my own death. But I don’t want to let this burp of evolution called aging continue to take my loved ones and animals away from me. At least not until they themselves (speaking of people, of course) want to leave. If they ever want to.
But, of course, at the same time, I would like to live for thousands of years, or even live forever. Not because I’m afraid of dying. Because life is interesting, multifaceted, and full of surprises. And if I can spend that time with those I love—if aging and death are conquered—there is no doubt that I will always choose life.
A love of life may be a reason to fight against aging. But personally, I think that a fear of death is a much stronger motivator.