Doctorow on consciousness uploading

"In their modern incarnation, these ideas largely originate in science fiction novels.

"That is to say, they were made up and popularized by people like me, the vast majority of whom made no pretense of being able to predict the future or even realistically describe a path from the present to the future they were presenting. 

"Science fiction is something between a card trick and a consensual con game, where the writer shows you just enough detail to make you think that the rest of it must be lurking somewhere in the wings. 

"No one in sf [science fiction] has ever explained how consciousness uploading could possibly work, and neither have any of the advocates for consciousness uploading —the difference is that (most of) the sf writers know they're just making stuff up."

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