15 Comments

Awesome. I'm teaching a course on the psychology of thought experiments and we *just* covered teletransporter cases and mind uploads. I may have asked them to read this if it'd come out a few weeks earlier. I still might for future classes. Really cool stuff.

I especially like the remark about how there are difficulties with the actual practice of mind-uploading and that's one of the things I'm trying to stress: stories like this are interesting and may provide insight into ourselves and on philosophical matters, but we should approach them with caution: some of the features of fiction may mislead us into overlooking scientific and other barriers to realizing the scenarios that've been described. Conversely, people are sometimes resistant to things described in science fiction that are possible.

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I'm obsessed with this concept as well. Great story! You might like the comic memoir Artificial: A Love Story.

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author

Thank you! Artificial: A Love Story looks interesting, I'll have to check it out!

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The idea of inputting a family member's history and writing into a computer program without their consent and after their death is a strange crossroads. Or Fredbot as they call him in Artificial: A Love Story. It would be interesting to have conversations with a program that has consumed all of my grandparents' data. Not sure how it would make me feel. Less or more lonely for them. Wild stuff. The conversation between the son and father in your story was heartbreaking. Thanks for writing it.

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Oct 18Liked by Tommy Blanchard

Excellent story! I love the two identities confronting each other and what their concerns are. I also have a recent story out on mind uploading, a much different take. It's referenced in my post here, if you'd like to check it out. https://speclectic.substack.com/p/mind-uploading-is-that-really-you

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author

Thanks, I'll check it out!

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Oct 17Liked by Tommy Blanchard

I love this short story. Reminds me of Bernard William’s paper, “The Self and the Future” (1970), which I’ll hopefully touch on in my ongoing philosophy of mind series (I’ve only got part one right now, haha). I’d love to dialogue around ideas—I suspect we have quite different leanings, and I’d love to learn more about neuroscience. I’ve subbed!

https://agapesophia.substack.com/p/a-reflection-on-reductionism-art

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Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I read the essay, looking forward to more. You might be interested in this article where I touch on the what it's like to be a bat issue: https://open.substack.com/pub/cognitivewonderland/p/could-your-green-be-my-red

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Hey Tommy. Thanks for getting back to me! I'll definitely check it out. Cheers 🤞

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Oct 17Liked by Tommy Blanchard

Love the story, really good stuff - reminded me a bit of some of Greg Egan’s fiction on the conundrums of copies and uploads.

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Greg Egan is my favorite sci fi author, so I take that as a huge compliment! Thank you!

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Oct 18Liked by Tommy Blanchard

Absolutely - one of my favorites as well - his work is phenomenal and always mind expanding with the unique possibilities he explores. And yes, take it as a compliment as often I’ll start reading a story and my attention will wander if it’s not sufficiently compelling either in character, style, or concept. Yours kept me reading from the start to the end. So yes, a big compliment.

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I will forever remian perplexed about people who seemingly can’t grasp the difference between a copy and the original. It’s not a complicated concept :p

Consciousness is emergent of the matter it rests in. We don’t need to understand why, just observe how overwhelming the evidence for it is — including our own subjective experience.

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What is the overwhelming evidence?

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