Would you "digitize" your body?

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 7:36 pm

I'd rather become a foglet than a robot, but there's no reason my code couldn't be downloaded into a cloud of nanomachines when the tech became availible.

Anyway. I'm a neophile. If I could live long enough to see that it'd work, I almost certainly would. If it was death or transcendence, I would in a heartbeat. And then skulk the internet to figure out how to hack AT&T to make every phone in the world ring at once as a birth cry.

As for the "pleasures of the flesh" thing ... yeah - you'd still have a brain. There's no reason you couldn't recieve pleasure, that could even be similar or perhaps even identical*, to the pleasures you felt as a meatsack.

*we don't know, but I figure this would also help answer that question. Even more win!

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2007 1:41 pm:

God, I wish this could be done. There's so many things I'd just LOVE to see what happens... what happens if you take a Digital Someone and make a copy of the code and upload that, too? What happens if you do it multiple times? What happens if ... can you hack someone? Can you hack yourself? What would it be like if, holy fuck, you could recode your brain / self?

Terrene · Post by **Terrene** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:50 pm

Being digitized would make porn a whole new experience.

FireAza · Post by **FireAza** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:37 pm

[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="727525"]As for the "pleasures of the flesh" thing ... yeah - you'd still have a brain. There's no reason you couldn't recieve pleasure, that could even be similar or perhaps even identical*, to the pleasures you felt as a meatsack.[/quote]
Well, my original idea was for you to become a being without a physical body, so you can no longer receive pleasure from things like eating and... other fun events...

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:40 pm

[quote="FireAza";p="727566"][quote="StruckingFuggle";p="727525"]As for the "pleasures of the flesh" thing ... yeah - you'd still have a brain. There's no reason you couldn't recieve pleasure, that could even be similar or perhaps even identical*, to the pleasures you felt as a meatsack.[/quote]
Well, my original idea was for you to become a being without a physical body, so you can no longer receive pleasure from things like eating and... other fun events...[/quote]

Yeah, but even without a body ... ugh.

You know these pleasures of the flesh? They're in your head. The body pretty much just serves as a device to recieve input. Are you saying you can't, say for example, write a program to stimulate the same part of the (now-digital) brain, in the same way, and thus create the same pleasure?

Why not?

The Cid · Post by **The Cid** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:43 pm

I'd put my brain in a robot's body.

But only if I could have x-ray vision and the strength of five gorillas.

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:50 pm

Oh! Oh! And big chainsaw hands. BZZZZZZZ!

Terrene · Post by **Terrene** » Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:59 pm

But you're only five feet tall.

Donomni · Post by **Donomni** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:17 am

This reminds me of Ghost in the Shell.

And lesbian porn star/detectives who are Robocop.

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:21 am

Hm. Gender. There's another thing that'd be, or could become, an issue, with all sorts of interesting questions and discovers, with digitalization, too.

hmmm ...

(like, the most basic one, what happens to gender when sex is pretty much removed? But then there's also the begged question, how much of sex is tied up in parts of the the body that wuld be digitalized, vs. how much isn't?)

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:44 am

Gender is a fascinating issue with digitalization. I mean, part of who we are and how we respond to and interpret the world has to do with the way our brains are arranged, the chemicals they create and use, and how they use them. If I were to be digitalized, could I be sure I would still enjoy the same things, in the same ways as I do now? I don't know about you, but I LIKE the feeling of heat, power, and control I get when I experience certain stimuli - the rush of adrenaline and testosterone. I think those things would probably be lacking in a digitized setup.

I will completely ignore the question of soul, because quite frankly, it's WAY to broad of a topic to begin to address here. That said, there is something evanecent about human nature, the way we can suddenly get into a groove or rhythm from music... the way we can find ourselves in the "zone" during a sporting event, that kind of thing. I think in something more mechanical, that always operates the exact same way every time a certian input comes in, life would become much more boring... much less soulful.

Killer-Rabbit · Post by **Killer-Rabbit** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:45 am

[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="727567"]You know these pleasures of the flesh? They're in your head. The body pretty much just serves as a device to recieve input. Are you saying you can't, say for example, write a program to stimulate the same part of the (now-digital) brain, in the same way, and thus create the same pleasure?

Why not?[/quote]
Though the electrical signals in our brains are the significant part of its operation, it also relies on chemical composition for much of the feelings of pleasure and emotion.

FireAza · Post by **FireAza** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:45 am

[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="727567"]Are you saying you can't, say for example, write a program to stimulate the same part of the (now-digital) brain, in the same way, and thus create the same pleasure?[/quote]
The problem is, how do you define the type of "good" something feels to write a program for it?

StruckingFuggle · Post by **StruckingFuggle** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 7:49 am

[quote="Blaze";p="727598"]Gender is a fascinating issue with digitalization. I mean, part of who we are and how we respond to and interpret the world has to do with the way our brains are arranged, the chemicals they create and use, and how they use them. If I were to be digitalized, could I be sure I would still enjoy the same things, in the same ways as I do now? I don't know about you, but I LIKE the feeling of heat, power, and control I get when I experience certain stimuli - the rush of adrenaline and testosterone. I think those things would probably be lacking in a digitized setup.[/quote]

Unless you can program the digital brain to be able to fake it.

I will completely ignore the question of soul, because quite frankly, it's WAY to broad of a topic to begin to address here. That said, there is something evanecent about human nature, the way we can suddenly get into a groove or rhythm from music... the way we can find ourselves in the "zone" during a sporting event, that kind of thing. I think in something more mechanical, that always operates the exact same way every time a certian input comes in, life would become much more boring... much less soulful.

You think, but how do you know? What is your evidence that the brain isn't just mechanical, that there is something evanescent that would be lost and couldn't be replaced with the right code?

Ahhh, digitalization, I wish it were possible if only to find answers - or at least the evidence to start on them - to these questions.

MasteR · Post by **MasteR** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:54 am

An Adrian Barbobot?

HTRN · Post by **HTRN** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 11:37 am

[quote="The Cid";p="727569"]I'd put my brain in a robot's body.

But only if I could have x-ray vision and the strength of five gorillas.[/quote]

I have just three little words: Mecha Freakin' Godzilla.

If you're gonna go, GO BIG.

HTRN

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