It's Alive!!!: Zombie Pigs Edition

[Mlle. Zabzie]

Just now, A True Kaniggit said:

Yep. After the Zombie Pigs eat us all. Or I should say you all.

My zombie hideout is impenetrable. Unless........

Wait, can Zombie Pigs climb?!

And are these fast zombie pigs or slow zombie pigs?  Inquiring minds need to plan before they become dinner.

[Darth Richard II]

Good God, isn't this a King short story?

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

I think it’s more important to first establish if one bite from the zombie pig transforms you into a zombie pig too, or do they just off you by eating you?  

And of course they can’t clime. Moron!

But they can stack!!!  

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

double

[felice]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Yeah, depending on the exact circumstances, I'd also be okay with becoming a bunch of digital data. Although, that one seems a bit tricky in terms of ensuring that it's still me and not a copy of me

Or worse, a simulation of you that's indistinguishable from the real thing, but isn't actually self-aware. It's a reasonable assumption that other biologicals are real people rather than philosophical zombies, since you know you are and they came about in the same way as you, but computers? There's no way to tell. Does software exactly mimicking the behaviour of the neurons in your brain replicate all the functionality of the biological brain, or is something unmeasurable missing? Even telepathy couldn't establish whether a mind is self-aware or not; it would let you hear their thoughts, but wouldn't tell you whether they could hear them - or more accurately, whether there is any them to do the hearing.

I think this question will be a major ethical minefield with AIs before uploading human minds becomes an issue.

[A True Kaniggit]

30 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

And of course they can’t clime. Moron!

Begins to breath easy.

28 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

But they can stack!!!  

Freaks the f*** out again.

[Fez]

2 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

See, both "yous" would be taxpayers.  Isn't it grand?

I've got no problem paying my share of taxes, even as a digital construct. I just want to make sure that if I go through all the trouble of having the transformation to pure data happen, that my current consciousness is what gets to enjoy it. 

15 minutes ago, felice said:

Or worse, a simulation of you that's indistinguishable from the real thing, but isn't actually self-aware. It's a reasonable assumption that other biologicals are real people rather than philosophical zombies, since you know you are and they came about in the same way as you, but computers? There's no way to tell. Does software exactly mimicking the behaviour of the neurons in your brain replicate all the functionality of the biological brain, or is something unmeasurable missing? Even telepathy couldn't establish whether a mind is self-aware or not; it would let you hear their thoughts, but wouldn't tell you whether they could hear them - or more accurately, whether there is any them to do the hearing.

I think this question will be a major ethical minefield with AIs before uploading human minds becomes an issue.

So, getting more serious, I'm not sure any of us currently are "self-aware" if we're defining that as something more than being an incredibly advanced of neurons reacting to stimuli we receive. If there were software that could perfectly mimic those neurons, including have memory of all previous stimuli received, I don't think it would be any different from the original person. Of course, this digital construct might radically change from the way the original person acted, because its existence is so different from anything the person ever experienced. But at the exact moment of it switching on, I think it would be that person.

Or rather, a copy of it. The original person still exists as a separate entity, and when I've seen this idea in science fiction before, it usually involves immediately killing the original person at the exact moment the transfer is complete. But that doesn't mean an unbroken existence of a single entity, it means a copy was created at the exact moment the original was destroyed. Although, no one from the outside would know the difference.

Guess you gotta have it be a slow process, replacing specific pieces of your brain with cyborg circuitry over time. And then when you are completely machine, getting pulled out of your body and into the machine. In that way, it's no different from how all the cells in your brain are slowly replaced by new cells as is; just doing it with silicon cells instead of organic ones.