From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Mon Oct 28 2002 - 02:25:44 MST
Emlyn O'regan wrote:
> I agree... the soulcatcher chip is not coming under my umbrella of "self",
> or even "identity". Although imagine how useful a soulcatcher of yourself
> would be...
>
> Emlyn
> (soulcatcher: http://home.iae.nl/users/lightnet/world/soulcatcher.htm)
Right. That soulcatcher chip is an interesting idea but even if it became
reality it would not allow for survival of death.
"Survival of identity," separate from survival of self, is something we
humans have been procuring for many centuries. We ensure the survival of our
identities in the form of tombstones with epitaphs, published
autobiographies, foundations in our name, etc. I don't think anyone here is
gullible enough to think such things are really a means by which our persons
survive death.
Imagine a tombstone that contained a very high-tech epitaph. Instead of a
sentence or two from you, it would contain a holographic image of your face
and programming that encapsulated your entire personality at the time the
program was coded. That tombstone would be able to interact with your
descendants who might come by to visit you and "mourn your death." Instead
of reading your epitaph, they would strike up a conversation with you...
"Hi Uncle Albert! We sure wish you had never died! We really miss you!"
"Hello there dear ones! Good to see you! I miss you too!"
"Do you remember the time you took Bobbie and me to the circus?"
"Why yes of course I do! How could I ever forget how you got cotton candy
all over your face!"
"Tell me, Uncle Albert, what's it like after we die? What is the after-life
like?"
"Well, let's see. I guess I would have to say it's very, umm, binary..."
Holographic tombstones could even interact with other holographic tombstones
in some transhuman future in which only the holographic tombstones survive.
We could even enable our tombstones to walk and behave as we did during our
lives.
Such things make for great sci-fi imagery but in the end we're still only
talking about a graveyard full of rotting dead people with high-tech
tombstones.
-gts
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