If you could live forever....would you? (1 Viewer)

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We live in exciting times. Most of us will probably live to see our species step foot on another planet in the next 15-20 years. The presence of internet connected devices is quickly becoming ubiquitous. 4.7 inch phones carry more computing power than some high end laptops just a few years ago did. I could go on--but we all can recognize and appreciate the Tech boom we've experienced. And with this tech boom has come many advances in medical treatment and improvement of patient care and facilities.

This leads to my question..Many have talked about the possibility that within a mere 50 years' time, maybe even much sooner..we will be able to "upload" our consciousness to a drive and store it..much like you back up your computer or smart device.

Here's the hypothetical scenario: It's the year 2075..you are more or less at the end of your life or getting there and you have the "option" of uploading your consciousness into a computer system--after which it will be transferred into a cloned 25 year old version of yourself and continue living life..or do you decline this and just die? For simplicity's sake, let's leave out religious afterlife scenarios.

I think i'd undoubtedly choose to continue living, but not sure how complicated the process of transferring a lifetime of thoughts into a new brain would be..but that's all a wash. I realize that i'm going to die eventually and this scenario is probably far fetched, but I don't think it's out of the question at all in maybe 100 years time, which makes it really fun to talk about at least.


Would you live on if you could? What would make you want to die instead of continuing to experience life?
 
Could I kill myself if I needed/wanted to?
Also could it be my 32 y old self?
The 25 yr old would spend most of its time trying to sleep with everything

If yes to both of those then YES!
 
I probably should have read the whole post first.

So here's the deal - if I'm transferring my consciousness to another body, it's not me. It would be a new instance of me.

Uh-oh, philosophical rabbit hole time
Imagine we live in a time when you can replace dying body parts with poly-bionic equipment -if you replaced a pinkie, you'd still be the same person, right?
If you replaced the other pinkie...
At what point would you stop being you?
 
I'd love to see what the future brings. I'd do it in an instant. To me scientific advances, human achievement, the great things humans can do are fascinating to me.


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It's your consciousness, it's what you know, it's your memory, your experiences, your feelings, inhibitions, awareness, your relationships, it's these things which make up who you are. The vessel which contains you is largely unimportant in my opinion, unless of course you identify that vessel as yourself, which I guess many people do.

Steve Gleason -- he lives in a different body, he can't even speak without an electronic voice -- is he still "himself"? I say yes.

Call it your brain, your mind, call it your spirit, call it god, whatever. Being can exist far beyond "body."

Your awareness of yourself is what makes you yourself.

I think, therefore I am.
 
No. We already have too many people and not enough resources. Let's not make things worse by keeping everybody around.

That aside, I think that the idea of data from a computer simulation creating a backup of itself in attempt to avoid deletion is interesting. It could make a good story.
 
Like other mentioned (and disagreed with each other), I'm stuck on the point about it being a copy of me and not actually me. So I don't think it's so important either way.

And if it is me at the end of my old-age life wanting to upload myself, maybe that's not so pleasant. Am I always forgetting things? Do I shake my fists at teenagers? Etc.


Anyway, this is kinda covered in one of the episodes in the new season of Black Mirror. The big difference being it's like a server with an imaginary world everyone lives in.
 
If I was just getting older and older and had no "real life"... Then no way

But like others said if I was mid 20's then why not..
 
Live forever, and stay the same age...Yes.
Live forever, but gradually age over time...Maybe/maybe not.
 
I think it is more likely that we find a way to regenerate our bodies and slow the aging process, as well as the capacity to substitute vital organs with machines. The heart is a very simple 4 chamber pump, the kidneys are already being replicated in dialysis machines, the lungs is another "simple" machine. The only difficult one would be the liver, but I'm sure it will get done. Those are all very doable. Now, to transfer "self" and convert that into 0 and 1's...I'm not buying it. Our brain is extremely complex. It's just not memories, but emotions, patterns of conduct, instincts...some of those things are too abstract to convert them into data patterns. Love the idea, but I don't find too realistic. How about downloading the information? How are you going to install all that information into an organic brain???
 
We live in exciting times. Most of us will probably live to see our species step foot on another planet in the next 15-20 years. The presence of internet connected devices is quickly becoming ubiquitous. 4.7 inch phones carry more computing power than some high end laptops just a few years ago did. I could go on--but we all can recognize and appreciate the Tech boom we've experienced. And with this tech boom has come many advances in medical treatment and improvement of patient care and facilities.

This leads to my question..Many have talked about the possibility that within a mere 50 years' time, maybe even much sooner..we will be able to "upload" our consciousness to a drive and store it..much like you back up your computer or smart device.

Here's the hypothetical scenario: It's the year 2075..you are more or less at the end of your life or getting there and you have the "option" of uploading your consciousness into a computer system--after which it will be transferred into a cloned 25 year old version of yourself and continue living life..or do you decline this and just die? For simplicity's sake, let's leave out religious afterlife scenarios.

I think i'd undoubtedly choose to continue living, but not sure how complicated the process of transferring a lifetime of thoughts into a new brain would be..but that's all a wash. I realize that i'm going to die eventually and this scenario is probably far fetched, but I don't think it's out of the question at all in maybe 100 years time, which makes it really fun to talk about at least.


Would you live on if you could? What would make you want to die instead of continuing to experience life?
We do live forever, We're like waves breaking on the shore, attached to the whole but yet individual at the same time. We have this instant where we're a distinct entity, then we return to the sea to repeat the cycle. We're the same only different. Another analogy is the passing of a flame from one candle to the next.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
--John Donne

The goal is to end this cycle of death and rebirth (Samsara) and attain Oneness with the Universe (Nirvana). We are all Buddhas, all that is left is to realize that fact.

But yeah, it would be cool if I could spend some more time in my 25-35 year-old body and have the same level of que sera sera as I had then.
 
If I copied my consciousness into another being, do I cease to exist in my original body?

I think it was the movie The Prestige that sort of explored this a little. Hugh Jackman duplicated himself. One of them died, but the other lived on to duplicate himself again.

Seems to me like you start and end with your brain.
Wherever you go, there you are.
 

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