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purepersistence t1_ja3vgi0 wrote

Nobody that talks about uploading yourself has any idea what that means specifically. What's going on there? There's presumably some kind of machine that captures the state of every cell in your brain and how all the neurons are connected and accounts for hormonal influences and the range signals different types of neurons can make and so on. AND assumes that You are nothing more than what's in your brain. It's as though (somehow) ALL of you can be digitized and then reproduced in a virtual world while you're still a conscious entity that experiences genuine pleasure in your existence. You are so much more than the conscious thoughts floating around in your brain (which we're still a long way from really understanding biologically). You're an animal with hormones and animal instincts. All of your high level language is just an abstraction of the physical world in which all your ancestors human and otherwise evolved in for billions of years. You need that physical world obviously more than you know. There's nothing else you can understand, even in your dreams. The depth of physical sensations such as taste, sexual pleasure, physical closeness have a far more deep rooted place in you than anything specifically human. Feeling the breeze and the Sun on your face while taking a walk with a close companion may be something that can be simulated by something. But without a real loss? Making a machine that fools everybody and passes the Turing test with flying colors does NOT make it truly conscious. It just means humans are gullible. Look at all the people that inject intelligence into chatGPT which is fucking silly.

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just-a-dreamer- OP t1_ja3ywit wrote

I see little beauty in the physical world. Most people seem to work hard to escape the reality around them. Amazing what effort people put into the goal of "stop working". FIRE movement, military/state pensions, 401k, etc.

All with the aim to stop working at some point in life. The most efficient way is to switch worlds alltogether. While the body must be kept alive some way, the mind is better off somewhere else.

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dakinekine t1_ja54mcl wrote

This is kind of a shocking thought to me. I see a lot of beauty in the world and I think maybe you could too. I have zero desire to spend all my time in a virtual world. I would totally spend time in the spiritual world though if I could - ethereal planes of consciousness and such. But definitely not a machine controlled virtual reality!

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just-a-dreamer- OP t1_ja566o8 wrote

There is nothing worthwile here.

Most people aim at an education and job to escape working as fast as they can. "Not working" is the ultimate goal of most humans.

It is irrational to work long and hard to chase nice experiences in this world, when you could have the same at a fraction of the cost in a digital world of your own design. One day.

But even if you like work, in a digital world you can truly choose every aspect of your job and all ventures you want to take.

You can socialize as much as you truly want, or not, belonging to a tribe is no longer a matter of survival.

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dakinekine t1_ja57omr wrote

Not sure how old you are or how much of the world you have experienced. There is a lot out there and most certainly a lot of people who think like you regarding “work”. I think if you looked, you could find people who share similar beliefs with you and who live an alternate lifestyle. You can’t say there’s nothing worthwhile here if you haven’t travelled and experienced other cultures and ways of life. I understand you might not be happy where you are and with what you are doing in life - wish you all the best and hope you find some happiness and satisfaction in your life. It’s out there if you are willing to look for it and work towards it.

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timothymoontower t1_ja6bept wrote

You forget that most of the pleasure in nice experiences is from the fact that they are scarce.

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purepersistence t1_ja3zj6q wrote

>I see little beauty in the physical world.

Since you've never experienced anything else, what are you comparing it to? Can it be visualized? Tasted? Heard? Felt?

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