What does it feel like to be dead?

What does it feel like to be dead?

Probably not nothingness. Here's a thought experiment: 

A man offers you $1 million to participate in the following experiment: Be killed in a painless, non-inconveniencing manner, and immediately thereafter "resurrected" using a super-high-resolution 3D printer which re-creates you from raw materials (with perfect precision down to the very last atom and neuron in the exact same state right before you died). Would you participate because you believe you will persist in the replica and enjoy the $1 million (continue living life)? Or would you decline because you believe the replica is just a separate individual with your same thoughts/memories and the original you would be dead forever (feeling nothing, never able to enjoy the $1 million)? 

• If you decline (you think the replica is a separate individual who gets to enjoy the $1 million, and you'll be dead forever), then you must also fear "death" in 10 years, even if you live. That's because every decade or so, every single atom in your brain has been cycled out due to eating food and pooping poop, so you retain almost none of the original materials that made your brain 10 years ago. If your identity is tied to the specific atoms that make up your brain, you already died many times.

• If you participate (you think you persist in the replica), then you agree you would continue to experience the world in this replica. That raises the question: If the brain were a tiny bit different, would it still be you? Of course, because when you get a concussion, your brain becomes damaged, but no one says their consciousness is being replaced by another observer. But then you realize, you could make a replica of you whose brain is 99.999% the same as yours. And, you can't see the world from two viewpoints at once. Actually, maybe even a mouse brain is 1% the same as yours, and you obviously aren't seeing the world 1% from a mouse's point of view. And you start to realize the only solution to this whole conundrum: Somehow, the pure feeling ofawareness in the present moment must a fundamental property of the universe.Emotions, qualia, ego, identity etc. are manufactured by the brain, but the single bit of "I am aware therefore something exists" is not.

The fact is, we don't know how "consciousness" (the uncanny feeling of being certain one's own present moment of awareness exists) happens. A human brain is only "more conscious" than a rat brain because it is more complex. It is only "more conscious" than a pile of falling dominoes because it is more complex. Since the uncanny "I, right now, am here" feeling does not appear to be explained by brain activity, it makes sense for it to be a ubiquitous property of the universe that exists whenever anything interacts with anything. Death would then be more like separation from ego/self rather than complete consciousness shutdown, which is more like everythingness than nothingness.

Software as art

Software as art

 

Sunday, April 24, 2016 by Dave Winer

Yesterday I posed this question on Twitter.

Are there any developers in Silicon Valley, having made their FU Money are making new tech for fun, w/o trying to find "business model?"

After I wrote it down, I wondered what took me so long to get there. 

My story...

I started as an independent developer in Silicon Valley in 1979. At the time, the idea of doing software development on your own was unheard-of. Until I met up with other people doing the same thing. I was pretty close to broke when I got there. And I stayed more or less broke until I merged my angel-backed startup with a VC-backed one that was on the path to going public. It did. I got my FU money. That was 1989. Ten years chasing both art and money at the same time.

So then I had a decision to make. Was I in it for the business or was I in it for fun? I had been wanting to get rich. My idea of myself was I'd live a creative life, with the independence that comes with success. I had attained success. So I stopped trying to be a company, and went back to what I did for fun -- making software.

I eventually left the Valley in 2003 because no one else was doing what I was doing. The only point in being there, because it is not an interesting place to me, was if there were other people to collaborate with. So I left seeking other places to try collaborative development for fun. ;-)

I actually do know one other person that's doing this -- Ward Cunningham, the guy who got wikis started. We pretty much belong to the same school of software development. Woz, if he were still developing, probably would be there too. 

I finally had the idea yesterday to ask openly if anyone else had the same idea, that software could be something you do for fun, and if the money followed great, if not, that's okay too.

If you're wondering if this makes sense, look at the life of Prince and imagine that people could make software that way. It could be art. When I started many years ago it was thought a weird idea that software could be art. For a while it wasn't. I think today it's back to being a weird idea. 

BTW, what started this thread was a question of whether the HBO show Silicon Valley was an accurate depiction of what goes on there. I said it was, if you looked at it from the point of view of a VC or reporter. But it does miss what it's like to create the technology. I think that story could be told as well. 

How Trump will pivot

 

I'm a big believer in George Lakoff's model for American politics.

• Democrats == nurturing mother
• Republicans == strict father

If you want to win the Republican nomination for President you need to be tough, decisive, thoughtful, not impulsive, consistent, firm, unyielding, protective. 

Then pivot to pick up Democratic votes. Show you care, you're listening, you're like them, be likeable, warm. 

I think the Democrats, as usual, think it's about policy. It's so obviously not. Trump has been selling liberal ideas to Republican voters and they don't care. As long as he's strong, decisive and strict. That's why they're Republicans. That's what they like.

With Democratic voters, if he comes off as if he really cares, can feel your pain (as Bill Clinton did), he will get Democratic and independent votes. That's how he will pivot. He will be good at it too. Don't pay attention to the policy.

Facebook and blogging

  Facebook and blogging

Maybe Facebook should hire me to turn [Facebook] into a rational blogging system. It has so many advantages, and it's really not missing that many features.

I have a sense that there aren't many bloggers working there, or they aren't letting them influence the product.

Blogging would be a very constructive thing for FB to invest in, not just for the net, but for Facebook. More and more the quality of their product depends on good content flowing through the timeline. And there will be more competition over time.

I really believe a thriving uncontrolled net is essential for the silos to be successful. Put another way, I think the product [there] is suffering because the tech industry in general has not been kind to the open web.

If I helped Facebook do this, it would be with the condition that the path for users to switch to a different system must always be kept easy and bug-free. Always. That would be a promise that couldn't be broken.

But seriously, why not have our posts have a dual existence -- on the open web and within the Facebook social graph. That's a lot easier than AI or self-driving cars!! We totally know how to do it.

It's just a thought I had, when I posted something [there] after not doing so for a long time. The ability to interact with friends is important, but we're not creating lasting value with the work we do here. That's a simple problem that could easily be fixed.

So if anyone at Facebook is listening, let me know if this is interesting to you.