This brings up a related point. How do you write your skills into the future? You can’t just write “As of 2010 I was an excellent piano player”.
But wait—maybe you can. If you’re assuming a reconstruction technology which can uncompress verbal descriptions of behaviours into the much more complicated expression of such behaviours in terms of the neural substrate, then quite possibly this technology will also have massive general knowledge about human skills allowing it to uncompress such a statement into its equivalent in neural and muscular organization.
But then, what a temptation! As of 2010 I am not, in fact, able to play the piano, but if this record for the future can also serve as my letter to Santa, why not? It’s not as if any of it is readily verifiable. I could say I like the taste of lemon when actually I hate it.
This line of thought isn’t to ridicule the idea of writing yourself into the future—just to bring out some consequences the OP may not have thought about.
Of course this is a possibility. Even with cryonics, presumably if we have the technology to restore you then we’ll have the technology to restore you with whatever modifications you’d like. The person you write into the future will be like you only insofar as you make them like you. If you choose to write someone like yourself but who is an excellent piano player into the future, so be it.
Evidently. :)
This brings up a related point. How do you write your skills into the future? You can’t just write “As of 2010 I was an excellent piano player”.
But wait—maybe you can. If you’re assuming a reconstruction technology which can uncompress verbal descriptions of behaviours into the much more complicated expression of such behaviours in terms of the neural substrate, then quite possibly this technology will also have massive general knowledge about human skills allowing it to uncompress such a statement into its equivalent in neural and muscular organization.
But then, what a temptation! As of 2010 I am not, in fact, able to play the piano, but if this record for the future can also serve as my letter to Santa, why not? It’s not as if any of it is readily verifiable. I could say I like the taste of lemon when actually I hate it.
This line of thought isn’t to ridicule the idea of writing yourself into the future—just to bring out some consequences the OP may not have thought about.
Of course this is a possibility. Even with cryonics, presumably if we have the technology to restore you then we’ll have the technology to restore you with whatever modifications you’d like. The person you write into the future will be like you only insofar as you make them like you. If you choose to write someone like yourself but who is an excellent piano player into the future, so be it.
Piano playing is easy to record.