[MURG] MU Vision

[king-yin yan]

 cat13 wrote:
>> Therefore, I posit that a satisfactory vision of MU has to have:
>> #1: preservation of information (memories, personality etc) &
>> #2: a sense of gradual replacement &
>> #3: is feasible with current/projected technology within a
>>     reasonable time frame (eg a few decades?).
>> If anyone is able to come up with a scheme to meet these
>> 3 requirements, I believe that scheme is likely to become
>> universally accepted.
>
>I, personally, wouldn't even consider it to be uploading without
>#1.  I'm assuming #2 is in contrast to a discontinuity in
>consciousness, which is fine with me but I'd bet I'm in the minority.
>WRT #3, that's difficult to say (but I will grant that there will be
>certain cases which obviously can be achieved in a few decades, such
>as coal-powered cars, and certain cases which obviously cannot, such
>as Jupiter colonization).
>Note that I'm just typing as I think here, rather than making a point.

>I don't think any version of anything, especially uploading, will ever
>be universally accepted.  I suspect that your second requirement will
>be most instrumental in attracting a following.

You're right, my use of the term "universal acceptance" was bad.
Actually I am trying to predict which version will have the most
"market share" among MU and related technologies. I'm not too
concerned about religious issues. MU is not necessarily in conflict
with religions.

[snip some philosophical issues I'd rather not discuss here]

>> Here is another catch. Everyone who will research on MU are
>> not of the same age. Same goes for our potential customers.
>
>I'd like to make one incidental point here:
>the phrase "our customers" carries two implications:
>a) we're the only people working on this
>b) we have a monopoly on this
>
>I see MURG, rather, as a channel for disseminating information to
>interested parties.  MURG does not have customers because MURG is
>not so tightly knit an organization.  It's a confederation rather
>than a corporation.

Well, I'm in it for genuine interest as well as for the money (hopefully!).
I think it's advantageous to consider commercial issues early on, because
we all need salaries to sustain research activities and so on. I'm not
aware of anywhere else where the concept of "uploading" is discussed
explicitly. So MURG seems to me a nice place to start...

My idea of MURG is like a research consortium with the explicit goal of
creating MU technology.

>> What we need here is very good project management skills
>> so that the time and resource requirements will be accurately
>> estimated.
>> 
>> Such a top-down approach is possible if we can keep abreast
>> of state-of-the-art technology in a comprehensive way.
>
>This vision implies the dedication of full-time people, rather than
>a bunch of dreamers, a few students, and a scientist or two who
>fantasize about living indefinitely in their spare time, which is (as
>I see it) what we have now (have I been taking Eugene lessons?).
>In other words (as it has been pointed out before): we don't have the
>resources to treat this as a real Project.  Project management
>(with which I have some experience, though I wouldn't consider myself
>'very skillful,' as you suggest is required) depends on knowing what
>is available.  We don't know what is available to us.  Myself, for
>instance: every time I think I can contribute a significant amount of
>time, some stupid real-life requirement jumps in the way.  I can't
>give a realistic estimate for what time/skill resource I can contribute.

It's OK if you feel burnt out. Everyone gets flatlined at times =)

Personally, I think MU is worth persuing more than full-time. I'm trying
to recruit more people, get a vision, and get funding. (Although I'm not
a scientist yet). Then again, MU will be a very big project/project(s)
and it will need a lot of people with different skills, not just researchers.

YKY


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