Alice asked rhetorically, "Do you ask this because you think the replacement method is better than the scanning method?" ”

Avatar Three: "Yes, I think that the consciousness uploaded to the computer by scanning is nothing more than a copy of the uploader's own consciousness, and the uploader's own consciousness is not actually uploaded to the computer. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info only the substitution method can really upload the human consciousness to the computer. ”

Alice laughed, "Since you think so, how about doing a thought experiment with me?" ”

Avatar Three: "Okay. ”

Alice said, "Now let's say you've done a neural upload using the scanning method, and according to you, that consciousness in the computer is just a copy of yours, right?" ”

Avatar Three: "Yes. ”

Alice continued: "Next, let's say the person who is doing the nerve upload for you suddenly puts you and your clone's consciousness into a virtual world on a whim, but he doesn't tell you that it's a virtual world, you think it's the real world, and then he tells you that you're the clone, and your clone is actually your own body. This virtual world is very real, exactly like the real world, at this time do you have a way to prove that you are not a clone? ”

Avatar No. 3: "Even if I can't prove it, I'm still not a replicant, it's just that I'm stuck in a state of brain in a vat, which has given me a wrong perception." In the state of the brain in a vat, even if I did prove that I was not a clone, such proof would be meaningless. ”

Alice said, "Since you say so, then let's go further." Suppose the person who scans your brain for consciousness uploading replaces all the cellular neurons in your brain with artificial neurons by substitution, and from your point of view, the consciousness in the brain made up of artificial neurons is your own consciousness, right? ”

Avatar Three: "That's right. ”

Alice said, "Then he made an exact brain for your clone from the same artificial neurons. Now these two brains are physically identical......"

Avatar Three interrupted Alice: "Even so, I'm still me, clones are still clones, there's no doubt about that!" ”

"Even if the two brains are physically identical?" Alice asked again.

"Yes!" Virtual Personality No. 3 is unequivocal.

Alice smiled and said, "But then this guy did something crazy, he took your new brain out of your body, put it with your clone's brain, and then he designed an automatic program that measures the spin direction of a random electron, and if the spin is up, put your own brain back into your body, and if the spin is down, put your clone's brain into your body." This process will not be recorded, and after all this is done, he even went so far as to annihilate the electron used to measure the direction of the spin with an antielectron, so that now even God does not know which one you are the original and which one you are the replicant. In the end, he told you the truth and your clones, no, I should say he told the truth to both of you, because he couldn't tell you anymore...... Will you still stick to your point of view at this time? ”

After thinking for a while, Avatar Three said, "If the situation you said really happened, I think I would admit that both of these consciousnesses are the real me, although I still think in my heart that the consciousness scanned into the computer is a replica." ”

Alice said: "Actually, you think that the replacement method is your own consciousness, which is just a psychological barrier. Essentially, there is no difference between the substitution method and the scanning method. It's just that the substitution method kills your physical brain in the process of gradual replacement, and there will be no situation where the consciousness in the body and the consciousness in the computer exist at the same time, thus avoiding this psychological disorder. The substitution method, which unconsciously replaces your neurons when your consciousness is completely clear, will give you the illusion that your consciousness has not changed, that the consciousness in your body has been transformed into the consciousness in the computer, and that the consciousness in your body has died and a new consciousness has been created in the computer. But in fact, there is no difference between uploading your consciousness by substitution and killing your physical brain immediately after uploading your consciousness with a scan. If you insist that the scan method uploads a copy to your computer, then the replacement method is to use the copy to unknowingly replace your body. ”

Virtual Personality No. 3: "You say that the substitution method kills the consciousness in the physical brain, what evidence can you prove?" ”

"Just do another thought experiment with me." "Now let's assume you're going to do a neural upload, and let's say we've done some kind of technology to completely 'pause' the neural activity in your brain. In fact, the biggest problem I faced when I used the scanning method for neural upload was that the human brain was always in vigorous activity, and if the whole brain could not be completely scanned in an instant, the activity of the brain itself would make a mess of the scanning results. Now I'm going to use two separate techniques to upload your consciousness, and because of the 'pause', both of these upload methods are done in an instant relative to the brain, you can understand this, right? ”

Avatar No. 3: "Understandably, this 'pause' is equivalent to increasing the speed of our neural uploads countless times, right?" ”

"That's right, because it's a thought experiment, we can assume that the upload speed is infinitely fast." Alice nodded, "After uploading your consciousness to the computer using the scanning method, I used artificial neurons to recreate a brain for your consciousness uploaded to the computer in reality, as I said before, because of the 'pause' assumption, this process is still completed in an instant relative to your 'paused' brain." That is to say, at this moment, we neurogenally upload you in two different ways, and we get two brains made up of artificial neurons that are identical at the atomic level. The only difference is that the brain in the original body is still there after uploading with the scanning method, while the original brain is no longer there after uploading with the replacement method. ”

Virtual Personality No. 3: "You have a point, it's really strange, once I add the assumption of pause, I suddenly feel that the replacement method is also a copy, maybe it's really because of the subtle change of the replacement method that I have an illusion." ”

Alice concludes: "That's why I use the scanning method instead of the replacement method. ”

At this point, no one is debating the merits of scanning and substitution, but it is clear that the debate about neural uploading is just beginning.