[quote name='Luckless' timestamp='1326836601' post='4903790']
The problem with space flight is that space is kind of dangerous. Mind you the general support requirements of a Brain-in-a-Box would likely be far lower than that of an actual human being. Personally I would hold off on doing the whole "Dive into space" bit for a few centuries. Spend time on earth, and save space for when I get bored.


But live 'life' in a box with no interaction with the real world and just watch pretty pictures go by? No thanks.

One could argue that being bound to a planet is more dangerous than being able to travel through space.

@Procedural generation above: One thing that procedural generation does seem to struggle with right now, at least in significant applications, is that it stacks procedural pieces to get a procedural end product. It doesn't do a lot for getting those procedural start points to interact with eachother. The forest is a good example. In real life, trees can grow together, when a tree falls over smaller trees will spring up pretty rapidly in any clearings. Things like this dramatically change the layout, and the forest scene especially looked very off to me because of it.

The city could see similar things through the evolution of neighborhoods. While it looks fine from further away, living in that city might feel unnatural. Every building is apparently run by a financial institution or tech giant. Where are the bad neighborhoods? Where are the different ethnic neighborhoods? Minneapolis/St. Paul is a great example of how neighborhoods differ very sporadically even being less than 10 minutes from each other.
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Well the things you see as absolute problems with procedural generation are only algorithmic flaws with the examples I had presented. In theory it would be possible to create a completely 100% convincing simulation but to create such a simulation would require an almost endless amount of man hours. However, you would have all of eternity to perfect said simulation.

Maybe in 25 years. I still have a lot of sex to enjoy.

Definitely would want this. There is the whole problem of making a copy of oneself though. You have to deal with the idea that you've essentially been duplicated and generating more than one of you is a possibility. Basically the electrical signals that worked in the organic vessel are different than the new electronic one. After that philosophical query which could last all of a nanosecond not much would change for me. You'd have billions of people working inside of a computer possibly on research or leisure maybe. Would be cool to be given unlimited time to focus on research. Connect up the computer system to robots. A thousand years will pass by and you'll be like "wait I was putting in an upgrade to the server from the fab using a surrogate. I haven't seen an organic around in a while." "yeah I think they died off". "woah, so we're all that's left" "probably". Then everything goes back to normal.

Maybe in 25 years. I still have a lot of sex to enjoy.

Making assumptions about a virtual world? When you have virtual kids you'll understand.

I think the biggest irony would be watching Dr. Who and seeing the Cybermen. That and choosing when kids take a history class or watch the Matrix. Deep stuff there. "So wait we're the robots?" "nah we're the humans. We never harvested the humans for energy. It never came to that. If it helps we probably would have. Electronics are just as greedy as organics".

Depends, if I were a computer(the hardware) or placed inside a modern computer(a program running on the OS)? Would I be the kernel? Or the OS? Or both? Or a program(that would be the worst I believe, I'd have to resort to alot of hacking to be able to do everything I want).

A computer is a static piece of hardware, sitting there waiting for a human(or other program) to tell me to execute a program, but if I were both the kenel & OS then I would definitely do it. As the OS I could decide whether or not to execute a program, write my own programs that assist myself(I guess I'd be AI then now) & continually getting more powerful & able to perform more things, dedicate my time to making my own programs/projects - something that could tell me when the next family guy just aired & download it. But what happens if I start to run out of RAM?

Computers are a tool, used to help me make money, make life easier/more efficient. If I were to become a computer(..become a tool hehe ) I wouldn't need money, my only purpose would be to write more programs so I could do more stuff...but the more I think about it that's fine by me.

Yes that could also be done and I think it would be quite possible with modern technology to build a body of equal or better function than a human body. The lack of a functioning virtual mind is probably the primary reason such a body has not been built.

Well no, clearly there would be great benefits of artificial bodies even without mind uploading - e.g., replacement limbs, replacement joints, replacement organs, new bodies for our brains when we get old, and so on. The technology for some of these things exists, but we're a long way to being able to replicate our bodies. It's not simply that there's no point yet.

I do believe this will be possible with future technology, but not yet.

[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1326832106' post='4903758']
Yes that could also be done and I think it would be quite possible with modern technology to build a body of equal or better function than a human body. The lack of a functioning virtual mind is probably the primary reason such a body has not been built.

Well no, clearly there would be great benefits of artificial bodies even without mind uploading - e.g., replacement limbs, replacement joints, replacement organs, new bodies for our brains when we get old, and so on. The technology for some of these things exists, but we're a long way to being able to replicate our bodies. It's not simply that there's no point yet.

I do believe this will be possible with future technology, but not yet.
[/quote]

I'm not speaking of the function of organs but motor and sensory functions. We don't use robotics for replacement limbs because there would be no connection to the brain. However, if you were a computer it would be very easy to make a connection between mind and machine. We do indeed have the ability at this very moment to emulate the motor and sensory functions of a human body with ease.

Seems like a ridiculously small problem... Satellite with solar cells, pay power bill for next 200+ years or maybe a nuclear power supply? Possible solutions for that problem are endless. Out of all of the potential problems you choose this to nitpick about?...

Um..no it's not a small problem. We are already dependent on the sun, and there's a limited supply of energy. Getting into the cyber world makes you even more vulnerable to energy supply. Now you are depending the constant supply of electric current. Somebody trip over the wire, some dumbass think you haven't been paying the bill, some janitors push the off button, earthquake, anything could happen that can erase you permanently.

Yeah, sure, you can be invincible there, but to the outside world (here), you can be killed with a flip of switch.

Well, procedural worlds are pretty static. If I would be the only one in the "simulation", procedural people would be boring as hell (sometimes they do seem procedural in the real world, and that's a pretty uncomfortable feeling). If I wasn't the only one in the simulation, then how would one manage to manage all the changes made by people? I'm definitely not some cow that's happy in a full static or fake-dynamic environment.

And I definitely wouldn't rely on a computer and system designed by humans for this task. People can't even make much simpler systems bug free. Sure, living organisms have "bugs" too, but the system has been tested for millions of years now with a pretty effective and enormous system. I wouldn't rely on a hardware tested even for a thousand years by a limited set of humans. Maybe it's stupid. Maybe we could just copy the workings and development of a human brain...

Anyhoo, the whole "escaping from things in the real world and creating my own and be free" seems like approaching life with my ass.

[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1326808179' post='4903609']
Seems like a ridiculously small problem... Satellite with solar cells, pay power bill for next 200+ years or maybe a nuclear power supply? Possible solutions for that problem are endless. Out of all of the potential problems you choose this to nitpick about?...

Um..no it's not a small problem. We are already dependent on the sun, and there's a limited supply of energy. Getting into the cyber world makes you even more vulnerable to energy supply. Now you are depending the constant supply of electric current. Somebody trip over the wire, some dumbass think you haven't been paying the bill, some janitors push the off button, earthquake, anything could happen that can erase you permanently.

Yeah, sure, you can be invincible there, but to the outside world (here), you can be killed with a flip of switch.
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So exactly how would turning off the power on a computer kill it? Also you honestly think there is a limited supply of solar energy? Bahahahaha!

[quote name='mdwh' timestamp='1326850727' post='4903855']
[quote name='SteveDeFacto' timestamp='1326832106' post='4903758']
Yes that could also be done and I think it would be quite possible with modern technology to build a body of equal or better function than a human body. The lack of a functioning virtual mind is probably the primary reason such a body has not been built.

Well no, clearly there would be great benefits of artificial bodies even without mind uploading - e.g., replacement limbs, replacement joints, replacement organs, new bodies for our brains when we get old, and so on. The technology for some of these things exists, but we're a long way to being able to replicate our bodies. It's not simply that there's no point yet.

I do believe this will be possible with future technology, but not yet.
[/quote]

I'm not speaking of the function of organs but motor and sensory functions. We don't use robotics for replacement limbs because there would be no connection to the brain. However, if you were a computer it would be very easy to make a connection between mind and machine. We do indeed have the ability at this very moment to emulate the motor and sensory functions of a human body with ease.
[/quote]Well, I'm not up to date with the latest in medical technology - but I'm not sure that the only obstacle to having machines better than our bodies right now is the lack of a brain/machine interface. An obvious example that our bodies are still way ahead on is capacity for self-healing (though I suppose one could argue it's redundant if you just put in a replaceable part).

Though I see what you're saying about a virtual mind meaning we avoid complications with a brain/machine interface.