I’ve been watching the TV series Pantheon and I really like it, but this tiny aspect is something I can’t quite grasp. So these people have their minds uploaded to the cloud - and they make a point to state that they’re still “them” - alive, real, authentic. But would it really be like that? The process is brain mapping, so essentially they just make a perfect clone of your brain/mind and run it digitally. But it’s still just a simulation. A perfect clone is still just a clone. The original person is gone. I don’t see the “continuity” aspect.
I think that’s a bad comparison. When you wake up, your consciousness uses the same physical brain as before (conversely, if the brain changes due to e.g injury the “you” might also change). When you “upload” “yourself”, the result is a new brain, there’s no physical continuity (same with sci-fi transporters). Even if the end result is a perfect copy of “you”, I don’t think it is you. Maybe a slow process that adds a computer part to your brain and kills off your biological brain bit by bit so your thought processes slowly migrate to the computer might work. But there are indications that “you” are determined by more parts of your body than just your brain, so even that might result in something other than the original “you” though it is a continuous process.
I get what you mean, but to follow on what @woodscientist said, I think your persistent ego is essentially a subjective impression you have.
Your sense that the “you” of today is a direct continuation of the you of yesterday is a feeling you have. If someone simulated your mind, that construction world presumably wake up convinced that it was a continuation of your ego just as you do every day. If you were still around, you’d probably insist that you were authentic and it was false. That assertion is intuitive, but ultimately neither of you can be proven correct. Both interpretations are subjective and equally valid.
“You” is just a thought pattern, a bit of software if you want to use a crude metaphor. Your body and mind are just the substrate that runs that software. And in principle that same pattern could be run on a computer.
Who says you need physical continuity? Imagine I’m running a city simulator game. I save the file and send it to another computer. I open it up and start it again. Is it not the same simulated city? Sure, the hardware is different, but that matters little. It is not the hardware that defines the essence of my virtual city, but the information that describes the city model itself.
You could do the slow piecemeal upload process. But again, that scenario is just trying to preserve the illusion of the continuity of consciousness. Real human consciousness is interrupted daily. There’s no need to go to such great lengths just to preserve an illusion of continuity.
I don’t think biology is that simple, the body influences the mind (e.g. https://www.sciencealert.com/pooping-before-you-exercise-has-an-incredible-effect-on-performance) and isn’t just a vessel for it. But even if it was…
I don’t think putting a copy of your mind somewhere else will transfer your consciousness as well, so it’s not a suitable way to ensure your continued existence (unless you believe in an immaterial soul that’s independent of your physical body).
No, as mentioned before, it’s the continuity of physical existence, which I believe is crucial to the continued existence of “you”, otherwise even if a copy thinks it is “you”, the original is dead. Which is no use to me, even if a simulacrum continues to exist it would be only for the benefit(?) of others.
It’s not exactly the same physical brain though? Neurons die and are sometimes, if rarely in adulthood, generated. They are constantly repaired, the exact molecules that make them up change. Glial cells die and form and they have supporting functions. Diseases change brain structure more slowly than immediate trauma. And so on.
I certainly wouldn’t say I’m the same person I was as a toddler.