Is it really? Are things, like what happened to Ms Jenneth or others, a fairly common occurrence among capsuleers? Are these sort of things just examples of the worst that can possibly go wrong with capsule technology? Unless you count permanent death as the worst case scenario, I guess.
What other risks do capsuleers face for living as transhumanists?
PS: Ms Jenneth, just to be clear, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with you. I personally think you’re marvelous. Mr Quelza’s statement just made me curious.
Consider, for a moment, how vulnerable we are as capsuleers. The entirety continuity of our identity relies on pinpoint, nano-second accuracy in the timing of our transneural burn scan. Not only that, but we must rely on the professionalism and security of whatever organization we entrust with our clone contracts. We’d be in trouble if our scan data suddenly ended up with nowhere to go. And what would happen if we had enemies waiting for us, just outside of our clone vat, after a rebirth?
Consider, too, that up until a couple of years ago we did not have access to revolutionary high-quality clone production methods. If we didn’t want to lose some of our memory, we had to make sure after every rebirth that we renewed a contract for a high-quality clone. I think I heard, years back, that one of the founders of the Guristas basically became a vegetable because he forgot to update. But rumors are what they are, and I can’t speak as to the veracity of that particular speculation. Like I said, we don’t get a whole lot of secular news in my part of the Ardishapur lands.
Consider that any damage done to the brain before the scan pops off will be recorded by the burn scanner and incorporated into the new brain. This is one reason why capsuleers were very concerned about the Kyonoke Plague. It migrates into the brain and causes massive damage there in the span of minutes. Brain damage incurred before a scan is copied over. This is probably a major reason we are subjected to a full genome scan before admission into a capsuleer academy. People that can inherit neurodegenerative diseases are bad investments as capsuleers go.
We are data, ma’am*. Data that can be transferred between organic vessels. Data than can be altered, corrupted, or lost. It’s safer than ever to be a capsuleer nowadays, but that has not been true for a majority of the time that capsule tech has been available to us.
As i understand it, my standby clone’s brain matrix receives regular updates of my current brain to which the clone’s matrix is “adjusted” to match more closely the current structure of the active clone?
Ma’am, but the salutation doesn’t really bother me.
No, I agree that we, our sense of self and personality at least, are data. I’m on-board with the whole transhumanst worldview. Don’t get me wrong.
Is it not possible to maintain a digital backup that is diffed against baseline measures of the last known good scan of our brains? In addition to updating the clone’s brain matrix that is. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Perhaps someone could comment?
Scanning of neural patterns for the purpose of cloning is like machine learning. It’s more important (and easier) to know that something works than how it works. In this case figuring out how the neural structure (what neurons are firing when and how) is a daunting and unnecessary task, just get a full scan and store it to memory for use, no bothering with anything else. The same way if you had a machine learned algorithm for detecting, let’s say, types of flowers you could try to unpack the code the computer had written but you’d need lots of time and patience. Better to just use it and not worry about how it works.
Same with brains, too complicated to understand well enough to amend copies on a regular basis. Just get an updated copy. Select, copy, paste.
Probably the highest risk is… not being considered a human.
And if you are not considered a human, you might not be considered as protected by law.
And if you are not protected by law, you simply can be shot down for the smallest of transgressions, like you would be a trespassing drone or something instead of being someone.
Speaking personally, clone iterative neurological damage which required most of the past year to have a TCMC installed to prevent all the muscular palsies and… certain urges. However, with some precision cutting out of the affected damaged areas and neural regrowth with oseocrin injections I feel much better now.
I can only speak from personal experience, and well, looking at this thread, should I count myself extraordinarily lucky as I have not had a “cloning mishap” happen to me, ever? Mind, I have managed to avoid a capsule breach for… Hmm… Soon to be five years? Which I guess makes me a veritable living fossil in Empyrean circles.
I see Mr Tash-Murkon. So we just don’t know enough about the brain to effectively keep incremental digital backups. It’s just better to overwrite a current brain matrix with the latest.
On a side note, there won’t be many people uploaded as machine intelligences for the next little while I’d imagine. Aside from our Sleeper neighbours, of course.
Ms Kim, those are very excellent points. As capsuleers we’re sometimes used to thinking that we’re better than so-called “baseliners.” One forgets that some of them might think the same way about capsuleers.
That sounds like an awful condition, Ms Gesakaarin. I’m glad you had a successful recovery. Is clone iterative neurological damage fairly common then? In any case, your story gives hope. Thank you for sharing.
That’s almost insignificant in statistical term. Of course, statistics don’t mean much to those who have to go through it. Still the odds are favourable, so that’s somewhat comforting.
On the matter of uploading: it is possible and has been done at least once
I do seem to remember reading about that somewhere. You know how it is; something sounds incredible and it has only happened, as far as anybody knows, once. It’s just hard to believe it actually happened at all.
Lost in uncharted regions of space, died in hyperspace, or warped to another universe? Those are all pretty aweful fate, but I think non capsuleers might also potentially suffer from those too, right?