[Original Image © Synthitect]
TELEPORTATION ARCHITECTURE
If you upload your consciousness to a computer (all of your
memories, your personality, and preferences) and destroy your brain, would you
still be, you? Research is being performed on “Mind Uploading” AKA Whole Brain
Emulation, and many Neuroscientists believe that some form of it will eventually
be achieved. Aside from the technological and computing power roadblocks that scientists
and engineers face, there are intricate philosophical and ethical questions
that prelude our escapades into duplicate consciousness. A popular thought
experiment on the topic, called the TeletransportParadox or Duplicates Paradox, was
presented by Philosopher Derek Parfit in his book the Reasons and Persons in 1984. The paradox involves the duplication
and destruction of one’s self, as well as the duplication and preservation of multiple
selves. The question is: In which version of your “self” would your
consciousness exist; and with multiple “selves”, would each version believe
they are the conscious original? The resolve, if any, was that “Mental
Continuity and Connectedness” must be established to produce a fluid uninterrupted
thought process. This would establish a true path of teleported consciousness, or
a true path towards multiperspectival consciousnesses.
Proposal:
The proposal here is that a transitional framework, or architecture,
must be designed to guide the transfer of consciousness from one host to another.
If the transfer of information and consciousness were to occur instantaneously,
we may never resolve the paradox of teleportation. To make us feel comfortable
teleporting we must know our conscious mind will arrive at the opposite end of
teleportation; we must live continuously through the exchange. We must feel
connected to our consciousness across the entire event. This may challenge
engineers & scientists to incrementally transfer data in a sequence that
our thought process can relate to, or simply handle mentally. For instance:
An application that assigns visual effects (Slow disintegration,
Swooshing, ghosting, motion blurring) to the transition of molecules, atoms,
and particles from their current position to their next configuration. Once the
physical “body” or host has appeared to completely transition across space,
your conscious perspective will briefly orbit from its current position to its
new host through an animation-style motion. Details may include: whether or not
the “body” completely transitions before the consciousness animation begins to also
transition or how the consciousness enters the new host (through a slowly
solidifying body part, or through a closing funnel at the top of the new host’s
“head”). Visualizing the teleportation experience and transition details may
assist with establishing frameworks for how data is transferred and documented
in the process. Sequenced data packets may be used to construct individualized teleportation
experiences that may also serve as security gateways preventing external tampering
or invasion/consciousness theft.