Will technology ever give us a real afterlife?

Been hearing a little about this theoretical "technological singularity" when technology becomes so advanced that humans are able to make ourselves virtually immortal. Sounds like fiction to me, but I am DESPERATE to survive my own death.

And I was thinking about some things playing Sims and playing around on Facebook. What if, when the body dies, we could download our consciousness to a computer and surf the internet after our deaths? There could be a Sims like world created for the deceased and it would be like a real Heaven!

So one of the Science people can explain to me how this is absurdly impossible and dash my dreams.

But if it did happen, you can imagine the religious would complain to no end and say those people are missing out on the "real" heaven.

 

Who would keep the juice running to your computer?

 

Ever see the movie, The 6th Day? Not Oscar material, but still entertaining. It basically revolves around the idea that you can have your body cloned, then once you are about to die, your consciousness can be copied into the new clone body (even a younger version of your body).

Very interesting idea.

 

I couldn't get past the Tron similarities.

 

Are we talking about the same movie? The 6th Day has almost no similarities to Tron whatsoever.

 

No. I was referring to the OP, not the 6th day.

 

Oh, lol, sorry about that.

 

It would be a computerized translation of you, not you.

 

I'm sorry to say, but this speaks V.O.L.U.M.E.S...

 

Technological immortality is the only possible sort of immortality, and it is speculation at this point. It's at least a possibility, unlike the spiritual claims.

To be clear, the concept of a technological singularity refers to the creation of superhuman intelligences--and presumably increasingly more rapid technological progression as a result of that, to the point where all technologies become imminent.

While far beyond current technical ability, that proposal is at least possible. Though if we could really download minds into computers, there would be no reason to constrain them to virtual worlds.

If such a technology is ever developed, however, virtual property might become more important than physical property.

No one has any idea how to download a mind into a computer, and even if it is possible, human consciousness is rather intrinsically linked to the physical hardware of the brain. It's not likely that minds can be "transferred" from a living person to a computer, but it might be possible to simulate a person's brain with a computer.

There are other routes to technological immortality, however. Research into cures for aging, for example.

I think by the point where we were able to do such a thing, religions will be a thing of the past. They certainly wouldn't have even remotely similar beliefs to what people hold today, if they did exist at such a point in time.

 

You are your brain.

When you copy something you have only made a copy.

 

What I have often wondered...if you had a replicator like on Star Trek and you replicated yourself exactly...if you pinched the repilcated being...would you feel it?

I mean if everything is the same......

 

If you cut off your arm, then pinch it, will you still feel the pinch? No. Because there's no mechanism for the signal to travel from the arm to the brain once it's been severed. The same would be true of a clone.

The bigger question is; "If you make a perfect copy of yourself, and then the original is killed, do you still live?" There's no definite answer to that, because it depends on the definition of you.

In my opinion, a person who is copied in such a way would be both alive an dead. One copy would have experienced death, while the other would not, but both would be the same person.

 

Yes but...lets go a little deeper. If I am a chemical being... what makes me aware is chemistry. If a being is chemically identical to me with the same software...I mean really...what makes me...me?

Just some more of my insanity. I also don't think the past and future exist.

 

What does it speak volumes about? Are we just supposed to realise? Are you some sort of religious nutcase?

 

Yes and No.

I have considered this question for years.

Lets say that every day you get a brain scan and a nanobot removes a millimetre wide slice of your brain and then rebuilds it exactly with synthetic parts. after a year you would have a completely new brain but you would not have noticed.

 

Continuity of consciousness isn't required for someone to be the same person (don't know about you, but I fall asleep almost every night), and as Sab pointed out above, you could incrementally replace neurons and at least intuitively (as it's never been tested) probably be fine, so continuity of matter isn't required either. Consciousness is information processing. Pause it, make a copy of the state, set it running on different hardware, and you've still got the same program. Now am I certain enough to undergo some theoretical procedure where my brain is scanned, simulated on a computer, and then my biological body destroyed? Not really. But I'd certainly give it a try if I were dying anyway, and I can believe that whatever "me" it is that would continue on might very well be just as much me as the one that will continue on when I wake up in bed tomorrow.

 

I'm no science guy but I assume that if it could work it would be like this. You would have to have your neural patterns transfered into a computer generated copy of a blank neural net. Then repeatedly (or continually) have dual experiences the simulation coexisting as part of you, to the point where experiences merge. It would be ideal if this were done for the subjects entire life. Eventually you would feel most whole when merged with your other half. When death finally arrives for the physical brain the computer half could still go on, perhaps not greatly noticing the loss.

 

What if we are uploading our consciousness from a computer while we are in the internet and our body dies?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oNnugi3yLU

 

Sure, why not? That's not what the singularity is, though. The singularity is when robots get so clever that they can build a robot more clever than themselves, thus exploding the intelligence of robots.

Anyway.

Your brain is just a machine, it can be copied. Some say that it wouldn't be you, but consider this. We don't experience time directly, we only experience time by relating to memories, which are stored in your brain. Thus, you can be thought of as a copy of yourself a second ago. The only connection is your memories and they certainly can be copied.

You are as dissimilar to your clone as you are to your past self, and thus, nothing would die in the cloning that doesn't die for every moment you live anyway.

 

The Sun. (Not "the Son". Old Star Trek joke. "Bread & Circuses" episode)

 

Works the same way with a "soul" in traditional religious thought. Without your "bodily desires"....your "soul" would be an INCOMPLETE copy of yourself. In other words, what makes you "you" is also the fact that you like eating chocolate, love a good foot massage, love swimming, or even due to you being blind or deaf. If all that is removed (i.e. a soul separated from the body, as is traditionally conceived at death).....you aren't "you" anymore.

 

Desperation.
Yes.
Yes.

 

When we develop the technology to download a human mind into a computer, we will be able to become truly immortal.

 

Downloading consciousness would actually entail modeling your brain (and possibly the rest of your nervous system, at least to some extent) and keeping that active.

I think the best possibility is simply in slowing and possibly completely doing away with aging. This may or may not involve cybernetic implants like those you can see portrayed in the movie Bicentennial Man, but mainly I think would come down to enzyme and/or gene therapy of some kind. I know they're testing medications that are supposed to slow aging and potentially keep us going well beyond 100.

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At least you'll die with the happy delusion of eternal life to come. Somewhat enviable, I admit.