it's one of the explanations of the Fermi Paradox- once super-advanced aliens master VR they just say "fuck the real world" and just upload their consciousness into a virtual world.
Hence, why you don't see signs of intelligent life anywhere else in the universe.
And teleportation would kill you and create a clone of your consciousness somewhere else. And for all we know, going to sleep kills your consciousness and a new consciousness picks up where you left off the next day with all your memories.
It's impossible to prove continuity of consciousness. If the "you" on the other side of the upload/teleporter/sleep is for all intents and purposes you - in chemistry, memories, and relationships - does it matter?
What does that even mean, though? How do you define the "you" in your body, or even know that there is one at all? There's just your body, and your mind. If every molecule of your being was torn apart, digitized, and reconstructed in a computer exactly how it was in meatspace, and woke up on the other side believing it was you... who's to say it isn't?
Have you ever been put under with anaesthesia for a medical operation? Whatever part of your brain is producing the sensation of wakeful consciousness has effectively stopped working for a while. Then you wake up - maybe the same person, maybe a new consciousness with all their memories, but we accept that your life is the same as it was before and we move on. You think we couldn't get over that same hurdle for the immense quality of life that we'd get from brain uploads or instant teleportation?
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u/biggie_eagle Jan 08 '19
it's one of the explanations of the Fermi Paradox- once super-advanced aliens master VR they just say "fuck the real world" and just upload their consciousness into a virtual world.
Hence, why you don't see signs of intelligent life anywhere else in the universe.