My thoughts on this are evolving, so I apologize if they contradict previous thoughts. My current thoughts are as follows:
It is extremely unlikely that humans, in any form (organic or on hardware hosting digitized brains in metaverse environments), will remain conscious on Earth. (There are risks from ASI, nuclear war, other forms of war, climate change, engineered viruses, etc. It doesn’t take a genius to be concerned.)
Elon and others are planning to move fully organic human beings, with all their vulnerabilities (temperature, oxygen requirements, easily-permeated bodies, etc.) off-planet. This will also entail extreme risk, due largely to the nature of human bodies.
The plan that seems most likely to succeed at maintaining human consciousness (awareness, self-identity, and such) might look something like this:
-Humans who are going to “die” soon, but who want a chance at revived consciousness, would have their brains preserved with glutaraldehyde, since we don’t yet have the technology to digitize brains.
-Humans who are fortunate enough to live long enough to witness en vivo scanning and digitization, or gradual hardware/digitized replacements for their brains, can go that route.
(Neuroscientists have been quick to point out the extreme logistical difficulty of digitizing the human brain. They have pointed out that there are around 100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion synaptic connections in the brain. However, it isn’t as if we would need the autonomic system, somatosensory cortex, fine motor control, fear responses, reproductive drive, endocrine functions, energy conservation systems (lethargy), etc. in every digitized individual that resides in a metaverse environment. In fact, I would be the first to volunteer for a little less of most of these systems.)
-And so eventually, provided humans don’t die out sooner, we will have digitized human brains in metaverse type environments on hardware. The ideal community per hardware system would be perhaps ~30 individuals.
-The “escape plan” (survival plan) would involve putting these communities on spacecraft, and sending these spacecraft out in different directions from Earth. There should be no more than one community per spacecraft.
-For each community, there could be perhaps like ten backup spacecraft launched simultaneously (or shortly thereafter in sequence) that would be within communication proximity, of the primary spacecraft. Then, if backup spacecraft #1 fails to get its "daily ping" from the primary spacecraft (on account of something like an asteroid strike), that spacecraft would activate its community which gets updates regularly of the latest status. However, if that doesn't happen, backup spacecraft #2 would come online (and so forth). (This would basically just be your standard backup system.)
-Systems should be modular, down to the level of the individual, so that groups can split off who can no longer stand one another. In the worst case, a particularly destructive individual could be “exiled” by the group.
-In all cases, there should be physical robots with fine motor control along, with all the requisite replacements on the backup spacecraft.
-Each spacecraft would need a charter agreed upon by every individual in the community. I personally can’t envision a community of more than around 10 individuals (max) getting along perpetually.
-As to the overall plan, I realize some people will make the very good point that base reality is most likely a base process, and everything else (branes, universes, simulations, etc.) is a subprocess with its own subprocesses. Even each human “self” is just a collection of these subprocesses. So why not merge minds with each other and/or ASI?
These people will probably point out that, in the end, perhaps it’s all arbitrary so long as the base process continues. (For all we know, everything I'm writing here is being dictated from a process outside this universe, and about which I'm only vaguely aware, so what difference does it make if the transcriptionist survives?)
However, some individuals (myself included), really happen to like our little collection of subprocesses (for what they're worth) and would like to keep viewing things from our own little perspectives for at least a while longer, so just let us have fun with this, okay?
-This is all I have to say, other than that I will personally be having my brain preserved with Oregon Brain Preservation. Please digitize me and bring me along in one of your communities. I can be very funny (both intentionally and unintentionally, like when I take myself as seriously as I am in writing this). You can just program out my annoying aspects in advance. I'm also hoping my mother, husband, and two children can be brought along, provided they have their brains preserved for eventual digitization in the first place. Obviously, this is my own little attempt at survival for myself and my family, but can you blame me? The results of evolution through natural selection are really, really powerful.
In the end though, if just one human mind manages to survive, out of all the humans who have ever lived, that will still be a success for human consciousness.
Love to all.
--
(I'm also planning to have my dog's brain preserved. It would be great if we could keep some canine consciousness existing as well.)
My thoughts on this are evolving, so I apologize if they contradict previous thoughts. My current thoughts are as follows:
It is extremely unlikely that humans, in any form (organic or on hardware hosting digitized brains in metaverse environments), will remain conscious on Earth. (There are risks from ASI, nuclear war, other forms of war, climate change, engineered viruses, etc. It doesn’t take a genius to be concerned.)
Elon and others are planning to move fully organic human beings, with all their vulnerabilities (temperature, oxygen requirements, easily-permeated bodies, etc.) off-planet. This will also entail extreme risk, due largely to the nature of human bodies.
The plan that seems most likely to succeed at maintaining human consciousness (awareness, self-identity, and such) might look something like this:
-Humans who are going to “die” soon, but who want a chance at revived consciousness, would have their brains preserved with glutaraldehyde, since we don’t yet have the technology to digitize brains.
-Humans who are fortunate enough to live long enough to witness en vivo scanning and digitization, or gradual hardware/digitized replacements for their brains, can go that route.
(Neuroscientists have been quick to point out the extreme logistical difficulty of digitizing the human brain. They have pointed out that there are around 100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion synaptic connections in the brain. However, it isn’t as if we would need the autonomic system, somatosensory cortex, fine motor control, fear responses, reproductive drive, endocrine functions, energy conservation systems (lethargy), etc. in every digitized individual that resides in a metaverse environment. In fact, I would be the first to volunteer for a little less of most of these systems.)
-And so eventually, provided humans don’t die out sooner, we will have digitized human brains in metaverse type environments on hardware. The ideal community per hardware system would be perhaps ~30 individuals.
-The “escape plan” (survival plan) would involve putting these communities on spacecraft, and sending these spacecraft out in different directions from Earth. There should be no more than one community per spacecraft.
-For each community, there could be perhaps like ten backup spacecraft launched simultaneously (or shortly thereafter in sequence) that would be within communication proximity, of the primary spacecraft. Then, if backup spacecraft #1 fails to get its "daily ping" from the primary spacecraft (on account of something like an asteroid strike), that spacecraft would activate its community which gets updates regularly of the latest status. However, if that doesn't happen, backup spacecraft #2 would come online (and so forth). (This would basically just be your standard backup system.)
-Systems should be modular, down to the level of the individual, so that groups can split off who can no longer stand one another. In the worst case, a particularly destructive individual could be “exiled” by the group.
-In all cases, there should be physical robots with fine motor control along, with all the requisite replacements on the backup spacecraft.
-Each spacecraft would need a charter agreed upon by every individual in the community. I personally can’t envision a community of more than around 10 individuals (max) getting along perpetually.
-As to the overall plan, I realize some people will make the very good point that base reality is most likely a base process, and everything else (branes, universes, simulations, etc.) is a subprocess with its own subprocesses. Even each human “self” is just a collection of these subprocesses. So why not merge minds with each other and/or ASI?
These people will probably point out that, in the end, perhaps it’s all arbitrary so long as the base process continues. (For all we know, everything I'm writing here is being dictated from a process outside this universe, and about which I'm only vaguely aware, so what difference does it make if the transcriptionist survives?)
However, some individuals (myself included), really happen to like our little collection of subprocesses (for what they're worth) and would like to keep viewing things from our own little perspectives for at least a while longer, so just let us have fun with this, okay?
-This is all I have to say, other than that I will personally be having my brain preserved with Oregon Brain Preservation. Please digitize me and bring me along in one of your communities. I can be very funny (both intentionally and unintentionally, like when I take myself as seriously as I am in writing this). You can just program out my annoying aspects in advance. I'm also hoping my mother, husband, and two children can be brought along, provided they have their brains preserved for eventual digitization in the first place. Obviously, this is my own little attempt at survival for myself and my family, but can you blame me? The results of evolution through natural selection are really, really powerful.
In the end though, if just one human mind manages to survive, out of all the humans who have ever lived, that will still be a success for human consciousness.
Love to all.
--
(I'm also planning to have my dog's brain preserved. It would be great if we could keep some canine consciousness existing as well.)