I remember a feature in Discovery Channel many years ago on the idea of downloading everything from a person’s mind – knowledge, memories, language, emotions, etc. – and uploading it to a supercomputer that controls a robot. This robot would then act and interact based on the whole personality of the borrowed mind, and it would keep on doing so even after the person is long dead, rendering him/her immortal.
Unfortunately, this attempt at immortality would only benefit the surviving family, friends, and colleagues because as far as the person is concerned, he/she has already ceased to exist and cannot experience or enjoy this “life” the robot is living.
Moreover, having one’s mind “transfered” to a robot’s electronic brain isn’t really very much different from distilling one’s thoughts into literature. Great minds from decades and even centuries ago continue to speak to the living and influence millions. Sure, a robot is cool, and Shakespeare might still be writing plays today if his mind was backed up in a supercomputer, but until such time that the technology becomes available, the written word is the closest one can get to immortality.
So to those who don’t believe in an afterlife, if you post your articles here at Filipino Freethinkers a part of you will become frozen in time, to be read, shared and discussed by future generations of freethinkers. By then this site might be run by Ryan’s great-great-great-grandchildren or by an FF Foundation – or by the CBCP, heaven forbid! – but as long as it exists, so will the authors, in a way.
And with this we are inviting everyone to submit articles on freethought – essays, stories, even poems.
Write up guys, and become immortal! 🙂
I am writing my personal letters to my Dad through this website. Maybe my grandchildren and their grandchildren will read about my epic struggles in finding freedom from the high walls of religious dogma.
Reading the first part of the article reminds me of Masamune's "Ghost in the Shell" and all of the complexities that comes with it. Indeed, one of the prevailing themes that GitS revolved around was what the price of immortality is to the individual. /segway
In real life, there have been instances where the immortalization of one's actions have led to unforeseen and unwanted repercussions, such as the photo of Tommy Smith and John Carlos raising a clenched fist to raise awareness for the civil rights movement in the United States. (http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/articles/2004/06/18/1089484304254.html)
I would think that the main issue here would be how to transfer knowledge, memories, language, emotions, etc ( along with that individual's unique consciousness signature)-which is implied
Ray Kurzweil, one of the few that will probably be related to this Science.
What is life? does it have to have legs, fins, tentacles? do Viruses count as life?
We can't really say that the life has ceased, when the data of its memories is stored. We could compare it to a clone with some exact memories.
Beautiful. A great call to action. And a warning to trolls, too 😉