this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026
81 points (95.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

42050 readers
1807 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world


7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.


8) No Bots.
Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Not necessarily a neuralink specifically, just any genre or type of cybernetic implants, if they were or will become available. I'm super hesitant on anything interfacing with my brain so I'd probably stay organic, except like if I lost my eyesight or hearing.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] my_hat_stinks@programming.dev 21 points 1 day ago (4 children)

The downside of copying your brain is that it's a copy, you'll have your original meat body and a separate mechanical body which minds which immediately start to diverge. They're both still you, but meatman gets no upgrades. You could destroy your meat body as part of the transfer but then it's reasonable to say you're dead with a robot that thinks it's you.

The closest you can get to a proper transfer would need an implant which works similar to how your body naturally replaces cells, the implant would gradually take over neurons until you have a fully mech brain which can be transplanted to a new body. You could argue that's still just a destructive copy but I think it's within most people's tolerance.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago

Crack my skull and spine open, pull out my brain and nervous system and put it in the robot.

[–] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

meatman gets no upgrades

[–] zoltanshields@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah but speaking as meatman I'm okay with meatman dying. Robot me will be the real me, meat me is ephemeral.

I don't believe in souls. I view my existence as like a wave, I am briefly in this cohesive form and will inevitably break upon the shore and both cease to be a wave yet forever be the ocean. Continuously moved and reshaped and never the same wave I was.

A body that allows my perception of existence to continue would prevent that, I would be able to continue to "exist" as I perceive it for much longer.

So yeah for me at least you can skip the gradual stuff. Just ctrl + c, ctrl + v and recycle the original.

[–] DisguisedJoker@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

How would you feel about your continuity if more than one robot copy/replacement is made? (at the same time all based on the meat version I mean, not as future replacement/upgrade bodies)

[–] zoltanshields@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'd be cool with it as long as they're all autonomous. From my sense of continuity I continue to exist and there are other copies who share my experiences as meatman up to the point in time where we received our respective robot bodies. It'd be like gaining siblings. From their point of view they continue to exist and there are other copies like myself out there as well.

I'm also okay if I woke up in my robot body and found out I'm not the first copy. Knowing myself it would be more of a "fun fact" that someone is the original rather than something that carries any sort of weight.

[–] DisguisedJoker@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Which robot would be you and which would be "the other copies"? I would imagine that from the descendants' pov they're all "you", but I wonder if you would identify yourself with one over the rest 🤔

If the descendants continue to collaborate in perpetuity, maybe "you" is the swarm.

[–] zoltanshields@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

I think we'd just view it as a matter of perspective. To me, I'm me and they're them. To them, they're me and I'm them. We'd each identify ourselves as me.

But we would probably also enjoy being considered a swarm, I know I would.

[–] AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

most people's tolerance.

Most people do not have an existential crisis over whether a teleporter is teleporting them or killing and remaking them. It's mostly a small subset of people who have that worry.

[–] MrOtingocni@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

I'd be like Mr. T in space. You'd never get me onto one of those transporters unless I was dragged there while unconscious.