The Upload

Substrate Independence

Functionalism is the philosophy that "Mental states are defined by their function, not their material."

A heart is a pump. It can be made of muscle, or it can be made of titanium. As long as it pumps blood, it is a heart.

Cognitive Science applies this to the brain:

The Mind is the Software. The Brain is the Hardware.

Since software is "Substrate Independent" (it can run on a Mac or a PC), your consciousness can theoretically run on Carbon (Wetware) or Silicon (Hardware).

We are not our atoms. We are the pattern of our atoms.

Whole Brain Emulation (WBE)

How do we upload?

1. Scan: Map the connectome (the wiring diagram of all 86 billion neurons).

2. Simulate: Build a digital model that mimics the firing properties of each neuron.

3. Run: Press Play.

If the simulation is perfect, the digital "You" wakes up. It remembers your childhood. It laughs at your jokes. To the outside world, it is you.

The Ship of Theseus

But is it really you?

If I scan you and delete the original, did I move you, or did I kill you and make a copy?

The Gradual Replacement solution:

Replace one neuron at a time with a silicon chip.

Day 1: 99.9% Biological.

Day 1000: 100% Digital.

Since continuity was never broken, you never died. You just slowly became a machine.

The Inheritance of Perspective

Biological life is a fragile, 80-year flash in the pan. Digital life is geological. An upload can live for a billion years, copy itself in seconds, and travel at the speed of light. It is the next stage of evolution.

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[!TIP]

Clinical Context: Identity Theory

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1. The Copy Problem: If you make two copies of yourself, which one is "You"? Both? Neither? This breaks our intuition of singular identity.

2. Backup Anxiety: In the future, the worst thing that can happen is not death; it is forgetting to back up your save file.

3. Legal Rights: If you turn off a simulation of a person, is it murder? We will need a new class of "Personhood" for digital entities.