> why does a soul or whatever have anything to do with importance?

It doesn't, I was reacting to something else entirely (namely a phrase of yours that I quoted).

> we just went over how "abstract" and "material" (the world) aren't necessarily so different...

A description of a thing (an "abstraction") is not the same as the thing in a materialistic universe. I can see how they can be neighbours in a platonic or more generally an idealistic universe.

Which is why it is crucial for us to know in what type of universe we find ourselves into.

> You think maintaining your personal narrative is of paramount importance

If we live in a materialistic universe , I don't think that concepts like "importance" can even enter the conversation.

Things either are or they are not in such a universe. In a materialistic universe your end is akin to the end of the world because there is a lack of observation in the particular timeline you always occupied. Yes the world will go on in some abstract way, but not in a manner that can -even in principle- matter to you. Say the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics ends up being true (basically time is multidimensional), in such a world how can it matter what happens in a parallel reality that is not ours. One's death in a materialistic universe is neither important nor unimportant, it does have a definite effect on the individual though (he gets stuck in a dead end version of the universe).

That's why I find a materialistic universe (if we indeed live in one) a partially solipsistic one.

I dont know how Platonism can be sollipsistic though. Plato certainly did believe that we live in a universe made of ideals and that we embody an image of them. The concept of a soul was paramount to his belief and especially to that of neo platonists. That's where Christians got it from (early Christians believed in bodily resurrection, there was no concept of an immortal soul, until neo platonists had their influence on Christianity around the 4th century ce, but I digress)...

Platonism argues that we live in a world of ideas. That things like math or information are extant entities instead of shortcuts we use to describe more involved phenomenons.

Materialism believes that we live in a world of matter. That matter is primary and everything else are shorthand of how matter behaves through time.

Materialism does not believe even in the possibility of things like souls, essence... software.

It does matter whether we live in a materialistic or a platonic universe. In one case Uploading yourself is killing yourself, in another it is living forever without the need of pesky mediums.

It is a rather core question which will show up eventually.

And yeah Materialism can be quite sollipsistic (but not exclusively, for example it does not deny the existence of other experiences as valid, merely as not very relevant once said piece of matter ceases)...

> and the cessation of conscioussness doesn't bug you.

It only matters in a platonic universe. If we do live in a materialistic world then it doesn't matter, because we are a thing which can switch on or off, but we are that thing regardless, if it switches off and then doesn't switch on, only then it is an issue. In fact materialism sidesteps a lot of the platonic/neoplatonic issues (immortality of soul and such ideas).

Only issue with creating copies of yourself (in a materialistic world), yet cease the function of the original is that you lose context, I.e. you do not see the world go on, instead you see it stop at the moment of the original's cessation. You can say that the world goes on in some higher level/sense but that's not at all what you're going to "see". You are going to see/experience the end of all. Which is -btw- why mass suicide has never caught on in most/any society, most people can make said connection in some subconcious level ("if I die, the world doesn't actually go on, at least not in any way that matters to me, at best it becomes a parallel universe to mine")...

Well you are a biological being, I.e. you are your neurons (which is why there is no turnaround in them), I don't think that full uploading will ever be a thing because mass suicide has never been a thing. We are material, not immaterial, hardly anything is immaterial, that's a category error that many in futurism do (just because we have a name for something doesn't mean it is an actual physical thing, for example every instance of a certain software installed in a different computer is actually a different program each time, I.e. differentiated matter gives rise to a very similar behavior, a bit of how monozygotic twins are actually two different people no matter how close alike they seem).

I doubt that materialism will ever be proven wrong, but I guess that's a question for a dif thread.

There is a downside with being infused with such ideas from early on. I'm prolly older than a lot of this sub (hopefully not by a lot) but I came in contact with age of the spiritual machines and similar ideas in the mid to late 90s...

Ever since then , no matter how small the danger (towards my life) I get spooked. For example I had a minor hospitalization lately, my iv hooked veins often develop phlebitis soon after. A mostly benign condition that almost never develops to something worse like DVT.

Yet I'm losing sleep over it, misjudge even slight muscle pain on the upper arm as the start of some nasty DVT. That's not even my 1st time with phlebitis. I get it almost every time I get hooked with IV lines (for often silly reasons) , so my subconcious should have been trained.

I was not like that at all as a kid. I think my hope that longevity escape velocity happens in my generation, made me paranoid in some subconcious manner and I'm accutely aware of my possible mortality, more than I would otherwise be.

I hope that younger generations that learn/read of such stuff do not fall in this pitfall. Whether you have a lot to gain (or less) by staying alive for as long as possible, does not make your death at his moment more imminent/probable. Yet that's the subconcious feeling (suddenly each danger is acute) that often arises if you let it.

Be aware, live your life! Obviously avoid stupid dangers, but often that's enough your body (and some medical checkups as you grow older) takes care of the rest for the vast vast majority of cases (which very probably includes you)

Me stressing over it, even subconsciously has actually made my health worse than it would otherwise be (stress more generally). It's ironic, but it is there. Be aware, our minds can be stupid like that.

I still think that a 16 year old game like Crysis has no place to look as good as it does today. A semi open world with fully destructible environment, tactics from your opponents and one of the best jungle environments to this days, with probably some of the best explosions to this day...

Contrast it with with 1991 games vs it. Graphics and videogame mechanics have definitely slowed, by a whole lot. There was no new paradigm to follow the one that brought us to the mid '00s...

Having said that , it is to be expected. The industry has matured, you need exponentially more money with very little return (both in results and money from said results). It's the prototypical S curve.

Next step in videogames would only happen when we change the medium (say being in them instead of controlling within a screen). By then there would be a fresh reason to progress fast... we are not there yet.