You know, the old idea of Descartes (and much older of course) that
human beings are some kind of immortal spiritual stuff in a material
body is pretty interesting in light of recent discussions about
immortality options involving uploading and transference of
consciousness. If in fact we can gain sufficient knowledge to capture
the unique "program" of a person's consciousness and transfer it to
another body or computer or whatever then Descartes claim is not so
bizarre after all. The immaterial spirit has become "information" or
"the program" or the running emergent phenomenon thereof.
- samantha
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