Posted by justin moretti on August 28, 1998 at 18:35:59:
In Reply to: Do we have the Hardware to Upload Jack? posted by Dom Ciocca, Jr. on June 10, 1998 at 17:35:16:
: Hi everybody--i recently read a novel by Poul Anderson wherein the protagonist "uploads" everything he is into a supercomputer.
: The "upload" had the same capabilities, emotions, talents, etc
: as the original man but went on imperishably through the cosmos.
: Why is it that I fear JV's death undoubtedly more than he does? Only partly so I'll read the next 2 Ports of Call novels if he lives to write them. Maybe there's a supercomputer we can load JV up to. Anybody know?
For another example of upload or transfer of complete personalities to computers, try "The Reality Dysfunction" and "The Neutronium Alchemist" by Peter F Hamilton. Also, the overseeing entities in 2001: A Space Odyssey did a similar thing before transforming themselves into pure energy, as did a character called Loxner in EE Smith/Stephen Goldin's "Eclipsing Binaries." Alas, the 2001 overseers had had their civilisation for at least a thousand years before developing the technique; Hamilton's novels are set in 2600 or thereabouts; and even Smith's "Family D'Alembert series" is set in the 24th century. I'm afraid you're at least 400 years too early, but yes, I wish I could do it too!