Building an Ethics Framework for use of Uploaded Personalities

Five years ago, our company reached the stage where we were able to create, maintain, and communicate with digitized brain transfer images.

These trials were conducted on patients with life-limiting conditions under the supervision and support of their families and their physicians. These trials were limited in nature in that we allowed the images to cease at the same time as their physical bodies. These were the wishes of the patients and the families involved.

There has been studies made by other parties which have proved invaluable in our research

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The economics of uploaded personalities

There was, however, no firm outcome for those pieces of research.

We have now reached the point where we want to go ahead with a fuller trial period with the end intention of completely separating the mind from the body. In effect, releasing those with life-limiting conditions and allowing their minds to be productive members of society.

The next phase in this project is ensuring that we have a moral and ethical framework in place to protect our patients, but allow them freedom to work.

In order to narrow the scope of this phase, we want to focus on a particular area. If we have good feedback, we can progress to the next phase.

There's three basic questions:

1. How do we protect our patients from emotional trauma and misuse?
2. How can we help prevent our patients from carrying out actions that may harm others/property
3. What emotional/long term implications of artificially restricting behaviour of our patients?

We are of course open for questioning and feedback from the WB research council.

Assumptions
* We have successfully replicated the brain's behaviour. Roughly ten man-years of patients interacting with their families and researchers has confirmed that the conscious mind and all the emotions/feelings/memories have successfully been digitized. To all intents and purposes, these are humans in a box.

posted about 8 years ago

System‭

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