Do you want to be immortal?
There is a growing awareness that information might be a concept more fundamental to our understanding of the universe than energy. This becomes evident when we think about us humans. It is the underlying assumption of artificial intelligence and is feeding our imagination with dreams of immortality.
Think about the movie “Transcendence” with Johnny Depp. Is it possible to transfer our being into a machine? This is a view of human beings as merely an assemble of synapses between neurons in our brains. We have overcome Francis Crick “you’re nothing but a pack of neurons” and think of a cybernetic form of immortality. This trans-humanist view is rooted in a materialist worldview and re-introduces the Cartesian dualism of mind and soul into our age of technology. However, it has a positive side. It recognizes that reality can no longer be reduced to materiality.
Recently, Noreen Herzfeld wrote a paper in the “Theology & Science Journal” reflecting on this issue. First, she recognizes the “why” underlying the idea of uploading the patterns of synapses in our brain to upload ourselves artificially. A new way of viewing immortality. Isn’t this wood to fire a novel? Then she moves into the return of the soul and asks pertinent questions,
“…when does one port one’s soul? At 15, when we know everything? At 25, when we are at the height of our abilities in terms of memory or calculation? At 65, when we have a lifetime of experience behind us? And if we ported our- selves at each of these times, would each copy be the same person, or would they be quite different from one another? Which one is the real you?”
We are not soul and body, separated. We are spiritualized bodies and bodily souls. Noreen says “bodies matter. Without a body, we do not have a self. Our bodies give us continuity over time… our bodies play a crucial part in our ability to feel, to have empathy, and, therefore, to love one another.” Our bodies are essential to experience and develop our relational essence.
We are relational beings. The relationships we establish makes us who we are. I wouldn’t say that information is the essence of the cosmos although I recognize it as essential as energy. Relationality is at the core. But to establish relationship you need a body and history. A history of the web of relationships that tell our personal tale. As stated by Noreen “AI has made the mistake of viewing the computer as an individual actor, rather than part of such a relational web.”
But this is not the end. What do relationships express in all their depth?
Love.
“Does love require a body?” - Noreen asks.
We may use and abuse social networking, but nothing replaces “being there for other”, physically present. Experiencing relationship between bodies. Experience empathy. “Genuine empathy requires recognition and response.” This means genuine empathy requires reciprocity. And finally, she states that “without the physical ability to feel, we cannot fully love.”
“We are more than information.” But is there a way of being immortalized without spending $3-billion in a research program to map the neural pathways in our brain? I think there is. It is old and still here.
Immortality in a material world is in our legacy.
In the culture we developed.
Aren't we still quoting Aristotle? Obviously, it is not the person in its wholeness that is immortalized, but his thinking. But look at the saints. Through their writings of their inner struggles and concrete actions, we're influenced by them. I dare say that through writing, we may become an immortal presence in the material world.
Do you want to transcend the material world and become immortal?
Write a book that's worth reading for centuries to come.
