Recreating Humanity in a Computer

[crepesack]

Every day we come closer and closer to creating human sentience. However, all of the greatest achievements we see is in creating androids. We never hear of people creating programs that can mimic human sentience in simple numbers, through computation, not physical manipulation. What if we could preserve people's conscious in the form of code and silicon? What if we could construct for ourselves a network of human codes, capable of manipulating other codes in their world and build a new, perfect world, long after our physical manifestations are gone? What if we could make heaven?

I ask you, Escapists, what you feel about matters involving the elimination of our biological selves and the possibilities of metaphorical immortality. We all know that a physical death is the one absolute in any life and that what lies beyond is something beyond certainty.

To be honest, I used to think I was not afraid of death. Now, I've come to realize if I die, it will be worse than not existing, worse than not feeling, it will be fading away from conscious: not knowing that you don't exist, but knowing you are about to cease existing- that anxiety.

I ask you, Escapists, where does man's future lie? A electronic immortality? A physical immortality? Or transience.

 

[hittite]

Hey, Christian here. So, yeah, afterlife for me.

 

[crepesack]

Hey, Christian here. So, yeah, afterlife for me.

I'm not saying there isn't an afterlife, but what if we could guarantee one by making our own?

 

[Agayek]

Every day we come closer and closer to creating human sentience. However, all of the greatest achievements we see is in creating androids. We never hear of people creating programs that can mimic human sentience in simple numbers, through computation, not physical manipulation. What if we could preserve people's conscious in the form of code and silicon? What if we could construct for ourselves a network of human codes, capable of manipulating other codes in their world and build a new, perfect world, long after our physical manifestations are gone? What if we could make heaven?

I ask you, Escapists, what you feel about matters involving the elimination of our biological selves and the possibilities of metaphorical immortality. We all know that a physical death is the one absolute in any life and that what lies beyond is something beyond certainty.

To be honest, I used to think I was not afraid of death. Now, I've come to realize if I die, it will be worse than not existing, worse than not feeling, it will be fading away from conscious: not knowing that you don't exist, but knowing you are about to cease existing- that anxiety.

I ask you, Escapists, where does man's future lie? A electronic immortality? A physical immortality? Or transience.

I'd recommend checking out the book Altered Carbon, it's a sci-fi book that describes a society exactly like what you're talking about.

As for my opinion on it, I don't really think there should be immortality. The only thing that makes life interesting is that it doesn't last forever. Life will become infinitely less precious if nobody ever died, plus after the first few hundred years I'd be bored out of my mind. If you have enough time to do everything you like until you're sick of it, what's the point of continued life?

 

[hittite]

Hey, Christian here. So, yeah, afterlife for me.

I'm not saying there isn't an afterlife, but what if we could guarantee one by making our own?

whoo, some pretty heated theological debates are centered on that possibility. Is the you that survives really "you," or is it just a soulless copy? I don't know. Personally, I'm enough of a cynic that I'll pass on the immortality, thanks. I'd just live long enough to see everything I care about destroyed.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I'd recommend checking out the book Altered Carbon, it's a sci-fi book that describes a society exactly like what you're talking about.

Seconded, it's awesome.

With Serial Immortality though, aren't you already duplicated in half of your children? Or in the thoughts you have implanted into others? While one person remembers something you have done, you're never truly gone.

Equally though, it's our duty to make sure luminaries are never forgotten. And through memes, they can live forever.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Computers can only operate by reading and duplicating. To say, if you create something on one hard drive, and "move" it to another, what you're actually doing is duplicating the data and deleting the original. Without some sort of direct brain integration, theres no way "you" could ever leave your body.

Now, unlike the christians, I'm not saying the result would be, functionally, any different. "Soul" is just a label given to the difficult to define perspective sense of self every mos-some people have. But if you uploaded "yourself" into a computer, you would exist, and the copy would exist, and from the instant of duplication become two completely different individual entities.

 

[FeetOfClay]

Now, unlike the christians, I'm not saying the result would be, functionally any different, "soul" is just the name we gave to the difficult to define perspective sense of self every mos-some people have. But if you uploaded "yourself" into a computer, you would exist, and the copy would exist, and from the instant of duplication become two completely different individual entities.

Thats true, but if only one remains (i.e., you destroy the original body) for all intents and purposes it is you. It's no different than how any descision or environmental change permanently changes a person

 

[Tharwen]

Hey, Christian here. So, yeah, afterlife for me.

I'm not saying there isn't an afterlife, but what if we could guarantee one by making our own?

whoo, some pretty heated theological debates are centered on that possibility. Is the you that survives really "you," or is it just a soulless copy?

That depends entirely on whether the soul (or any of the manifestations of the same concept) exists or not.

 

[Serenegoose]

If we ever create a form of mechanical immortality, I'm going to be right there signing up. As long as they augment my brain piece by piece, so there's never a break in my consciousness, I'll be peachy. After a while, my biological brain would only be a tiny part of the whole anyway, so it could vanish and I'd never notice. I do not think we'll be able to simulate human level thought processes for some time, however. They're not simple. I appreciate the idea that life's only worth living if you can die, but I don't see augmenting our bodies to immortality as being different to modern medicine - humans should die at a time of their own choosing, not natures.

 

[Danzaivar]

Why is it whenever people talk about creating human-level intelligence in a program, they follow it with 'we could copy ourselves into a digital version'.

That copy would not be you. It would be an emulation of you. A shallow imitation.

If you want to live longer than the 80ish years your body lasts, you need to either find a way to sustain your brain and impulses indefinitely. Or hope there's an afterlife of some form.

AI is gonna be friggin' awesome. It will (especially if we teach it science and programming) no doubt propel civilisation at a frightening pace. It might even replace us as the dominant force on the planet. We won't "become" AI.

 

[Paksenarrion]

Wow. I suppose the only thing we can probably achieve in the near future is electronic immortality. I foresee a global MMORPG, where the deceased become NPCs.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

What you want to create selfish self replicating virus for? Are you mad?!?!... oh wait.....

 

[octafish]

So... are we talking The Dixie Flatline here?

 

[Wes1180]

Did you happen to watch the newest episode of the big bang theory by any chance?

But yeah i'd go for putting myself into a robotic body, so long as it's still me in there and i'm not lost in the process.

 

[HeySeansOnline]

Wow this is probably going to turn into deep physical debate with citations of great intellectual works. So let me say that my answer can be found in that episode of Sealab 2021 where they all talk about human brains in robot bodies, and I shall be Tigerbot Sean.

But honestly I also fear death, but am sure theres something there. I don't know if I'd want a recreation or clone of me in any way. As it's not me, I can't experience what it does. Now maybe I could dig my brain in an artificial body, but still what makes me so special I get immortality. This really isn't a good thing, screws up the natural balance even more than the advent of modern medicine.

I like to think on the grand spectrum there's some higher power, all this crap had to come from somewhere. And there might be some afterlife, though it'd probably be infinite species and beings, and then what would it look like, I'm sure the Gorlaks of planet Nibion V didn't have white cumulus.

But anyway we should enjoy all the life we have.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

Now, unlike the christians, I'm not saying the result would be, functionally any different, "soul" is just the name we gave to the difficult to define perspective sense of self every mos-some people have. But if you uploaded "yourself" into a computer, you would exist, and the copy would exist, and from the instant of duplication become two completely different individual entities.

Thats true, but if only one remains (i.e., you destroy the original body) for all intents and purposes it is you. It's no different than how any descision or environmental change permanently changes a person

Except for the "purpose" where "you" are destroyed. There is no transference of perspective. A person copies themself, dies, and a copy lives on.

With that argument, one could say children operate the same way. My kids will simply be "me" mixed with another person and because they exist, I continue to exist. Its crap.

I mean, some people are happy with that. Happy with the idea that, even though they are now dead, a completely separate entity that is, from an outside perspective, indistinguishable from them continues to exist.

Personally, the only instance in which making a copy of myself is palatable if "I" continue to exist with them. I'd just never get into the whole "who is the original" debate because it simply wouldn't matter. Hopefully my duplicates would continue to feel the same way.

 

[BonsaiK]

Every day we come closer and closer to creating human sentience. However, all of the greatest achievements we see is in creating androids. We never hear of people creating programs that can mimic human sentience in simple numbers, through computation, not physical manipulation. What if we could preserve people's conscious in the form of code and silicon? What if we could construct for ourselves a network of human codes, capable of manipulating other codes in their world and build a new, perfect world, long after our physical manifestations are gone? What if we could make heaven?

I ask you, Escapists, what you feel about matters involving the elimination of our biological selves and the possibilities of metaphorical immortality. We all know that a physical death is the one absolute in any life and that what lies beyond is something beyond certainty.

To be honest, I used to think I was not afraid of death. Now, I've come to realize if I die, it will be worse than not existing, worse than not feeling, it will be fading away from conscious: not knowing that you don't exist, but knowing you are about to cease existing- that anxiety.

I ask you, Escapists, where does man's future lie? A electronic immortality? A physical immortality? Or transience.

I asked Cleverbot this question and the reply I got was "Who accidentally the whole bottle?". I think there's something in that for everyone.