I know this is a ridiculous question but I'm curious how many people are as crazy as I am. I relish the idea of living inside a computer primarily because I can escape many things which I greatly fear such as mental deterioration as a result of ageing or death. This would also allow me to escape many burdens of everyday life such as work and school. I could focus all of my effort on my projects and perhaps even improve my own mind in various ways such as improving my memory or eliminating the need for sleep. Though the thought of losing the ability to engage in any type of sexual interaction is unappealing I think those urges could be removed without much hassle.

Anyway, the question I want to ask is how many of you would give up your physical bodies and minds to have a virtual construct of your mind emulated in a computer down to the last neuron. In theory this construct would be you in every sense and would have the same emotions, memories, and thoughts that you have. I know a few of you would be interested in the concept if you could postpone it until you have lived at least a large portion of your life, but as a condition of this question you must be willing to give up your body immediately.

I've added only two questions to the poll because I only want a definite yes or no. 1 vote for yes will be my own so I can view the results. Basically my interest in the results are due to the fact that I feel as if I am an abnormality but to what extent I am unsure. Please do not post inflammatory comments or try to goat me in to an argument as I'm only interested in the poll results.

Like Tron?

Nope.

Though I didn't think of it that way initially since I've not seen the movie. I guess that is what it would become since I greatly enjoy video games and the ability to actually make them "real" would be at my finger tips. Plus there is the additional benefit of keeping some of the more pleasant parts of my humanity.

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Like Tron?

Nope.

Though I didn't think of it that way initially since I've not seen the movie. I guess that is what it would become since I greatly enjoy video games and the ability to actually make them "real" would be at my finger tips. Plus there is the additional benefit of keeping some of the more pleasant parts of my humanity.
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I haven't seen the original either, but I have seen Tron Legacy. You might like the movie, though Tron Legacy tries to touch the moral aspects of such reality if it ever existed.

I don't like about being transferred into a computer because a computer relies on electrical power to keep it running, and that electrical power source is here. How do you keep the power source running if you are inside a computer?
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Seems like a ridiculously small problem... Satellite with solar cells, pay power bill for next 200+ years or maybe a nuclear power supply? Possible solutions for that problem are endless. Out of all of the potential problems you choose this to nitpick about?...

I think a more interesting question might be whether you'd do it if you knew your useful life was over and the only thing left for you was death. Would you consider it then? I think it would become a much harder decision for me.

I think most anyone with a brain would say yes. If they did not, they most likely believe in some type of after life. Some may even believe that their emotions are apart of their soul and not a physical part of their brain(amygdala). Therefore they may believe that if such an emulation of their mind was created it would be an emotionless husk of them self. This of course is very ridiculous and lacking even the most basic understanding of science or the real world.

As long as the real world is not emulated as real and accurate as the Real one, no. As soon as it will be emulated, I'm interested in the Middle Earth mod.
(Emulation of the real world (more precisely a planet) is pretty much impossible for some millennium. And I'm fuckin not interested in some limited Truman Show size world)

I know a few of you would be interested in the concept if you could postpone it until you have lived at least a large portion of your life, but as a condition of this question you must be willing to give up your body immediately.

Then my answer would be no - but certainly I would love to do it as an alternative to dying (or when my body is old and weak).

And it's not a ridiculous question (apart from the fact that it's purely hypothetical to have it now). There is no reason why such a thing couldn't be possible at some point in the future, and some argue this will be possible within our lifetimes.

There is no reason it has to be purely virtual - if such technology is possibly, there is no reason for people's minds to control machines which directly interact with the physical world. Our bodies now are machines - we are machines - it's just a question of if and when we can improve on it.

An open question is whether such a simulation would be sentient, or be the same "me" - not that I think there is any supernatural aspect to sentience, but we don't know whether it is a property of any computation, or if it's caused by some other physical effect.