Digital immortality

[aburt]

Obviously a big longer term wish here. Be nice if instead of being limited to a body, one could move the locus of one's thoughts/sensation/etc. to a digital platform. Same (or better) mental capabilities -- not some watered down version of a human brain, but everything you think of as "you" except the fleshy bits.

Not giving up anything physical, mind you; the physical body would simply be a sensory input device and a tool to manipulate the physical environment. (Perhaps one of many -- why limit yourself to just one body at a time? Not to mention various other sorts of physical interaction choices one might have - virus sized, or wide area sensor nets, you could take direct input from a telescope [shared or personal], the choices are limitless.)

Once one is primarily a digital entity, there would basically be no concept of death like what we have today. Artists could continue creating art forever -- imagine if Da Vinci was still alive and working actively the past 500 years; this could be true of whoever goes digital. Imagine the depths of philosophical thought that could be achieved with near infinite time to spend on it, the depths of science if scientists could keep on working with ever stable and even increasing mental vigor instead of declining.

I realize this might not appeal to everyone, but sign me up.

[RhodyDave]

A very cool idea, and certainly something that lies within the realm of possibility. Imagine carrying your physically deceased family members around in a flashdrive and uploading them to your computer/whatever and having conversations with them?

I would think this is something we could have in the next 50 years or so. Maybe sooner.

[aburt]

A very cool idea, and certainly something that lies within the realm of possibility. Imagine carrying your physically deceased family members around in a flashdrive and uploading them to your computer/whatever and having conversations with them?

Better yet, they live their own digital life, and you hook up with them for dinner, movies, whatever, just like now. They wouldn't actually be "physically deceased" -- that concept would cease to exist. (Death would die, as it were.)

I would think this is something we could have in the next 50 years or so. Maybe sooner.

I agree, perhaps 50-100 years. If we can extend the lifetime of the physical body (anti-aging drugs, defeating the various major killers like cancer, heart disease, etc.), then we just need our single body to last until we get to the next rung on the ladder of a digital presence. The next rung on the ladder of evolution.

I suspect there are people alive today who will never die. More likely children, but who knows.

I can imagine in a couple hundred years people talking about, "Remember when people died? That really sucked."

[Shanton01]

I completely agree and often think about the Digital Immortality idea. There is one thing that I can't seem to wrap my mind around, though. If we are a digital entity, we would be able to easily copy ourselves, just as we do with other digital media now.

You would assume that the copy would be a new, separate version of you, with all of the same memories and traits, but is it "really" you? Are you perceiving everything that is happening between you and this new copy of yourself? The new version will think that it is you, since it has your memories, but I would venture to guess that you would not have any link to this new entity. You and this copy would not share any senses, new experiences, or the like. It would be like asexual reproduction, whereas you are creating a new separate entity, soley from your own traits and characterstics, except this entity will think that it is you, and will share all of your previous memories and experiences.

Creating a copy does not worry me, I am just trying to get to my actual point, will the original digital transference of your human mind to a digital form really be you, or is it a copy that thinks it is you? Does your actual "existence" ceases to exist, or is it really still you? ...and how do you know going into it? Every digital copy will think that it is the original human, but how can it be verified that your existence is still intact?

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of digital immortality and am excited for the opportunities that it would present. I just hope that my digital copy, is really still "me".