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EWWWW. Reanimating life? This has fuckall to do with anything, but I just discovered there will be a whole batch of Frankenstein style movies coming out soon.
Anyways, if you're an atheist, then I assume it would not be a stretch to say that what makes us who we are and what we think is coded in our DNA and our cellular makeup.
Ergo, shouldn't it be possible if we die, that we could be frozen or hybernated until such a time that it is possible to reanimate us?
I know there are companies that are already promissing to freeze us for this very purpose. And as horrific as it seems to me, if the psychical body is all there is and conciousness is strictly a neurological process of electrical impulses, etc.
....then we could damned well live forever once technology allows.
oh lawd.
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Assuming that scientific possibility pans out, I'm not really interested. I'm kind of tired now, in fact.
Of course, my own faith tradition has long suggested the existence of an afterlife in some form. So be it. It's just not what I see as the icing on my cake. Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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As an aside, have you seen the promotional material for the upcoming Frankenstein's Army?! The premise has the Nazis finding Dr. Frankenstein's lab diaries and developing an army of resurrected soldiers! HIGH cheese... but it looks like awesome fun!
[Edited 6/29/11 10:14am] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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no, no, no, noooooooo!!!
Reanimation creeps me out. | |
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Ever wonder if those people who are cryogenically frozen (like Walt Disney, for example) still dream? By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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Ex-Moderator | While this isn’t specifically what you’re talking about, my bf is fascinated with the idea that (while he would talk about this in a much more technological-sounding way) we’ll eventually be able to essentially upload the contents of our brains, so ourselves, really, to some kind of super computer and in that way we could feasibly live forever. And he’s pretty sure it will happen in our lifetime – if we make to be 80 or so. |
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Don't forget Bruce Lee and Hitler!! Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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That will absolutely happen, and it could be sooner than that.
Organic computing is looming (molecular computing), and this will exponentially increase the rate at which computers evolve.
the amounts of information that will be stored (and instantly accessed) is going to be amazing.
This means that every possible aspect or piece of information that a normal human has can be stored on a computer as information. Now, I'm not sure if this means that the computer is 'you' persay any more than I would say identical twins are the same person, but the practical application to this is that such a personality of sorts as contained within Einstein could be uploaded and continue to produce great work infiniately.
You could send machines to other planets--other star systems, and they would not be susceptible to the same vulnerabilities that we are.
If the human being is nothing more than his psychical construct, and it's not impossible to say that he isn't, then immortality can be achieved. Perhaps the only thing that doesn't scare me about all of this, is that every human being could live long enough to obtain enlightenment.
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Your BF imagines folk funneling their own sentience into a gestalt, or collective, one. I find that very, very fascinating, but I suspect humans (at least Westerners) en masse value their own individualism too much to do that. In a theological sense, I'd say this is why the notions of God, heaven and hell are personalized in the West.
Now, I definitely could see folk going for a sort of "consciousness backup" scenario, where they download themselves into some super computer used strictly for temporary storage in hopes of re-uploading themselves into a preferred personal body, their own "refurbished" or another new body of choice. I also could see paying big bucks to have the other's awareness, or bits of it, uploaded to themselves. [Edited 6/29/11 11:35am] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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Ex-Moderator |
He also believes we’ll evolve artificial intelligence in such a way that machine “brains” could become virtually indistinguishable from ourselves. We’ve had a few discussions about the ethical implications of this. How will we treat these entities? That kind of thing. |
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I think he's saying more of the latter, (especially in regards to himself - he's excited at the possibility! ) I maybe just didn't explain it correctly. But now I'm really interested in the idea of a collective consciousness in that manner... |
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Intelligence farming (let's call it) IS very fascinating. It, no doubt, would be privatized, regulated by government(s) and crawling with black-market goings on. But imagine the money people would pay to, say, have the intelligence of Einstein, the wit of Oscar Wilde, the business savvy of Donald Trump, the musical talent of Mozart, the internal bliss of the Dalai Lama, etc. all smooshed into the body of, I dunno, some young and gorgeous Olympic gymnast! Designer existence. It's CRAZY territory!
People would be placing bids on others, I bet. And folk could make major money selling parts of their own personalities! [Edited 6/29/11 11:37am] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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That's intriguing. Why does it creep you out so much?
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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Actually, I think they'll one-up us.
We haven't solved the many of perplexing math problems. We haven't cure cancer, etc.
There's nothing to stop a sentient computer from replicating a smarter version of itself, until you developing something that can pretty much solve all of our scientific mysteries for us (or at least a damned good number of them).
It's basically a race between man and machine to solve these mysteries now. I think man will get a few of them, but once machines 'switch on', they will solve the rest for us.
have-to-haven't edit
[Edited 6/29/11 11:49am] | |
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Chile, imagine thinking that you're dead for good.
THen one day the lights go on, and you're surrounded by a bunch of people you don't know, unaware of what year it is, and smelling a bit like Mrs. Havisham's musty old closet. | |
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Now THIS is the part that most fascinates me about all this. At some point I was even considering writing my dissertation on this projection as it relates to the "Fall" pattern we see across many cultures' ancient theologies, mythologies, etc., and that we seem even now to obsess over in much of our art, literature and scientific ethical conversation.
Should these computers reach that point, humans will be obsolete, liabilities, dead weight... at least where our utility is concerned. We become "illogical." In the same vein that humanity has dismantled God's objective existence, do computers begin to question our need to exist? Do they move to destroy us , as in so much science fiction? And if/when they are successful, do they rationalize that humans never, in fact, existed? And -- finally -- do computers apprehend their own shortcomings and move on to develop a further efficient means of intelligence, carrying on the cycle of Creation and Fall? [Edited 6/29/11 11:59am] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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I could live without my body, just reanimate my brain and my johnson My Legacy
http://prince.org/msg/8/192731 | |
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I'm not sure machines would think in those terms. We have to remember, we're talking about an evolution that goes beyond our more primary survival instincts. Intelligence that can replicate and evolve without adaptive stimulus--no war, no having to be clever than the other tribes and creatures, no threats. Simple evolving because the sentient machine is able to do it deliberately without much effort. It wouldn't think the same as we do. It would need to. It could go beyond 'the jungle'.
What gets me though is that if this is possible, then it further exasterbates the Fermi Paradox.
The Fermi Paradox states that it should only take a few million years, even with the most conservative estimates, for just 1 society to colonize the entire galaxy. I don't think (or I am not sure) Fermi took into account that machines may be the ones to do it for us----but if this is the case,then Fermi was eve more right--the Universe should be completely colonized by now. Were is everybody? | |
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I'm also very very sorry that this thread is not about oral sex or scrotums and the like, so forgive me for those of you who expected more from me. I do want to say that I have a proven track record of creating such threads though. | |
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By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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I've been trying to reanimate your johnson for ages. | |
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Primal survival instinct -- and much of how we carry on even in "advanced" cultures -- is built largely around a notion of real or projected material scarcity. I suppose you're right that computers wouldn't need to consider such a thing as we do, and wouldn't share our reaction to it. But all evolution presupposes some reason to evolve, and where scarcity/hostile material environment would be far less an issue to these computers (assuming they secure a sustainable energy source), I'm imagining a scenario where sheer efficiency of knowledge and utilitarian problem-solving drives them. Even then, though, humans are anything but efficient -- and so apart from sentimental reasons for computers to keep us around, I'm thinking we'd need to be dispatched.
Now, I'd totally concede the possibility of what I already suspect in some sense: that sheer sentimentality itself has some very utilitarian function that we way underrate. If this is the case, maybe the Terminator will let us stick around longer.
Good question. And I've got little in the way of answers. But if we assume that there's at least one extraterrestrial civilization considerably more advance than we are, perhaps their lack of evidentiary existence or contact with us isn't some hint at their nonexistence, but a statement we're not worth stirring -- or that minds superior to ours have deemed colonization of the material universe pointless? (...Perhaps with good reason that they know, and we've yet to find out???) [Edited 6/29/11 12:40pm] Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ χρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.” | |
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Never really thought that much about it. Last I heard about it is that when you freeze any living tissue over time you have permenant cell damage, they explode or something, which doesn't work too well for the brain since brain cells once destroyed can't be replaced or at least that's what I heard. I think it's the whole unfrying an egg problem, that some bright people believe is impossible.
I did hear something once about a scientist who may have discovered a way for living cells to turn back the hands of time, as far as physical youth goes. Meaning that a gene could be altered to make cells young again, ie, your body could be 20 forever, none of that pesky wearing out and dying in the first place mess. | |
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Yeah I vaguely recall that issue being discussed, and one of the things that they are considering is possibly immersing the brain and other organs in a special fluid that would prevent the cell damage during the thawing out process. By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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Human body is supposed to decay. Human body is supposed to die. Once you reach a certain age, chances are that one of your organs will collapse...and you'll die...Human bones have a limit as well...
And I'm not sure if the brain/body can endure the process of hybernation/dehybernation...sounds like science fiction to me...Alien, Empire Strikes Back, etc...
anyway, the govs WILL never allow it...overpopulation is here, folks, the worst thing for the world right now would be the possibility for the human beings to live 150-200 years... | |
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Well...unless procreation is slashed dramatically. By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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Who needs the other body parts if you've got the brain, if you can't save the entire body, that is? Clone the ideal body, plop the brain in and presto, youth with the knowledge, now that's the dream. I'm skeptical about all of it though, as far as our knowledge of the body and what really makes it tick to make it last indefinitely. I mean we can't even settle on how to properly nourish what we've got, we've gone from chart to pyramid to plate, and give it a decade it'll be something else. But pushing the boundaries is what people do, so who knows what'll turn up in the long run. | |
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I'm an atheist.. and PUUURRRLEAAAASSE when I'm finally dead, leave me that way! I want the grass to peacefully grow on my dead body. Period. Yeah, I love Graffiti Bridge movie, so what? ''Oooooooooooh Montreal, say it!''
If you can't be nice to someone on the net, you probably ain't worth much talking to in real life either. | |
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So no toxic embalming fluids or coffin for you, eh?
Eco-friendly burials; http://www.nytimes.com/20...etery.html By St. Boogar and all the saints at the backside door of Purgatory! | |
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I LOVE that!. I hate that politically correct corpse thing too, geez, I'm dead, just put me in a hole and cover it, don't spend money on a chemical shiny too expensive and useless coffin... I don't care being confortable or not I'M DEAD DAMMIT! Yeah, I love Graffiti Bridge movie, so what? ''Oooooooooooh Montreal, say it!''
If you can't be nice to someone on the net, you probably ain't worth much talking to in real life either. | |
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