How much better than a human can an artificial one be?

[K. A. Pital]

You might not realize this, but we are currently using encryption codes that would take longer to break than the universe existed. Complexity. Is. A. Bitch.

There are still pretty impressive workarounds. Once and if we get Q-computers running, modern encryption will essentially collapse. Not saying that will happen tomorrow, but it can't be ruled out.

[madd0ct0r]

The thing is, if you assembled a human from all these 2.0 organs, it'd be less then the sum of it's parts, as most of the things one organ does wouldn't be needed anymore due to everything else being upgraded.

Why? stuff will change but you still need the same basic functions every organ does to have a self-replicating autonomous biochemical machine.

Brain--> problem-solving to achieve primary goals
digestive system --> acquisition of power and building materials
immune system --> defence from inside and outside microscopic threats

and so on and so forth.

So let's say I write a new Digestive System:
The iGut is capable of dealing with all standard human foods, possess a limited ability to digest cellulose for emergencies, can be programmed for specific calorie controlled diets, will attempt to intercept all known allenergenic molecules before absorption and is capable of purging to eliminate parasites or infection.

I also write a new Immune System:
White Shield is a complete immune response control system. It can be used as a suplmentary sytem to your own old immune system, or better yet as a complete replacement. White Sheild allows you to control your body's response to things, drastically reducing the chance of immune-rejection of your latest upgrade. White Sheild Nanites are non-blood dependent, so they can travel anywhere. Need to sterilise a cut quickly? Just concentrate and then spit on it. Not looking to have children yet? Allow White Sheild to selectively disable the sperm as they pass along the duct. White Sheild can even pass into the heavily acidic zones of your digestive system to eliminate even the strongest of bacteria.


Now - these two are individually are better then the sum of them, becuase they overlap in certain areas. How many layers of protection does my gut need?
That's assuming they're even compatible. Software conflicts are bad enough, i'd not want that conflict happening in my small intestine.

[Starglider]

On a side note; if you can upload your mind to say a computer (with no EMP protection)

Most computers have 'EMP protection', it's called being a metal box, and it's required to pass RF emissions and device interference standards. Modern computers all have power supplies with sophisticated regulation and a fair amount of surge suppression; server farms have very extensive surge suppression and backup power. The only thing likely to die due to an EMP is your wireless networking.

and then you're hit with an EMP, what happens? Are you dead? In a coma?

Hard drives are enclosed in another conductive metal box inside the main metal box and SSDs are inherently not very vulnerable to EMP (due to having no magnetic components and insignificant conductive path length for induced voltage). Simple loss of power / someone setting fire to the server rack / hitting the robot with a sledgehammer all seem much more likely.

[MrDakka]

Most computers have 'EMP protection', it's called being a metal box, and it's required to pass RF emissions and device interference standards. Modern computers all have power supplies with sophisticated regulation and a fair amount of surge suppression; server farms have very extensive surge suppression and backup power. The only thing likely to die due to an EMP is your wireless networking.

I realize that modern day computer have some basic shielding. My question is what would happen to the uploaded mind. For the sake of the argument, lets say the uploaded mind is on a computer without any shielding whatsoever. Would the mind be for intents and purposes be dead?

Hard drives are enclosed in another conductive metal box inside the main metal box and SSDs are inherently not very vulnerable to EMP (due to having no magnetic components and insignificant conductive path length for induced voltage). Simple loss of power / someone setting fire to the server rack / hitting the robot with a sledgehammer all seem much more likely.

I did not know this about SSD's. I knew they were more mechanically rugged, but electromagnetically as well? I guess I'll be doing some detailed reading on how they function.

[madd0ct0r]

For the sake of the argument, lets say the uploaded mind is on a computer without any shielding whatsoever. Would the mind be for intents and purposes be dead?

you mean in a building made of wood? in a wooden frame?

[HMS Conqueror]

Functional immortality and telepathy would be basic goals, easily permitted by physics. On the other hand strength and endurance aren't likely to be dramatically better. These things have solid engineering limits that basically don't allow order of magnitude improvements.

If you're interested in what is fundamentally permitted by physics you're thinking too small, or at least in the wrong direction. Forget about making our bodies better; how about plugging all human consciousness into a shared simulation, that would allow any experience to be generated artificially? This would be functionally equivalent to infinite economic growth. Plus immortality. Actually that sounds rather like the Christian conception of heaven...

[bilateralrope]

Functional immortality and telepathy would be basic goals, easily permitted by physics.

Why do you think that telepathy is "easily permitted by physics" ?

[Starglider]

For the sake of the argument, lets say the uploaded mind is on a computer without any shielding whatsoever. Would the mind be for intents and purposes be dead?

Data on damaged computer systems is almost always forensically recoverable unless the hardware was thoroughly shattered, burnt or disintigrated. In this case the person is dead in the same sense that a cryogenically suspended human would be if we had the medical technology to bring people back from being frozen; resumption of consciousness requires outside intervention and a complex technical procedure. Of course if they're sensible they'll have offsite backups, and whether recovery from backup is amnesia or a completely different person is a philosophical question. From a technical point of view, there is no difference between doing a targetted delete/rollback to remove that last day of changes from a running system, and flushing and reloading state from a day-old backup.

I did not know this about SSD's. I knew they were more mechanically rugged, but electromagnetically as well?

SSDs are electrostatic devices. They don't contain magnetic materials and their internal conductive paths are too short to pick up a significant induced voltage from any reasonable EMP. The flash cells in particular use a relatively high voltage for program and erase operations compared to modern CMOS logic, so even if you fry the controllers the data will be difficult to remove.

[Starglider]

Functional immortality and telepathy would be basic goals, easily permitted by physics.

Why do you think that telepathy is "easily permitted by physics" ?

[HMS Conqueror]

Functional immortality and telepathy would be basic goals, easily permitted by physics.

Why do you think that telepathy is "easily permitted by physics" ?

My computers do it all the time.

[someone_else]

Now - these two are individually are better then the sum of them, becuase they overlap in certain areas. How many layers of protection does my gut need?

Uhm, no. System A has 3 functions, System B has 3 functions. 1 function of both systems overlaps. Total functions of system A + B = 5.
Is 5 more than 3? yes. So the sum of them is better than either A or B.

Otherwise I fail to understand what you mean by "better".

Besides, gut flora is the first layer of defence of intestines, well before the immune system is called to act.

That's assuming they're even compatible. Software conflicts are bad enough, i'd not want that conflict happening in my small intestine.

As if there weren't issues like that in real life. Leukemia for example.

Having the source code at hand makes these conflicts easier to solve than for biological systems. Although it's likely that MiKrosoft systems will never interact well with Mak ones just because of marketing reasons.

[madd0ct0r]

Now - these two are individually are better then the sum of them, becuase they overlap in certain areas. How many layers of protection does my gut need?

Uhm, no. System A has 3 functions, System B has 3 functions. 1 function of both systems overlaps. Total functions of system A + B = 5.
Is 5 more than 3? yes. So the sum of them is better than either A or B.

Otherwise I fail to understand what you mean by "better".

Besides, gut flora is the first layer of defence of intestines, well before the immune system is called to act.

That's assuming they're even compatible. Software conflicts are bad enough, i'd not want that conflict happening in my small intestine.

As if there weren't issues like that in real life. Leukemia for example.

Having the source code at hand makes these conflicts easier to solve than for biological systems. Although it's likely that MiKrosoft systems will never interact well with Mak ones just because of marketing reasons.

3+3=6
3&3=5 (the sum of the total is less then the sum of the individual parts)

but when you have 12 or 100 separate organs each with small degrees of overlap, the EXTRA you get for each $ effort is a little bit less with each new organ. Whilst a single 2.0 organ is a huge benefit, there comes a point when it's not worth replacing anything more.

there wouldn't be any gut flora, becuase iGut works on different principles and avoids such 'dangerous' buildups of bactera insdie you.

as for conflicts - yup, definitely solvable, I'm sure such easily solved problems have never caused me to have to wipe my computer and reinstall everything.