Stephen Hawking created a stir when he recently talked about life after death. A form of life after death anyway. One article I found is on the link below and this is what he says, “I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer…So it’s theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death.” But he admits we don’t have the technology to do it anytime soon.
The article goes on to describe some of the other digital immortality projects out there. Dmitry Itskov is still working on a robot that will house a computer copy of a brain. If there was a robot that had a human brain replica and consciousness, personality and memory went with it, would it be a curse or a joy to live forever that way? Would you still be able to mimic the experience of eating? Would you want to? What would robot sex be like? They say it’s mostly in your head…
Related articles
- Stephen Hawking: Brains Could Be Copied To Computers To Allow Life After Death (huffingtonpost.com)
I’d rather be a poem than a PC.
For thousands of years, individuals have been able to preserve a bit of their mind through poetry, philosophy and other arts. In a digital age, not all of my mind is worth preserving nor would I want it preserved. If I preserve the best, perhaps it would be a poem or a story to share. Perhaps a poem is my best shot at immortality and if it is preserved though electrons, who am I to complain?
Jim
Selective immortality
Artists, including writers, have the luxury of tossing what they do not like and saving what they do. Most of us have a hard time tossing. I visited one writer’s files that were archived after his death. He had kept everything and his life and writings, both good and bad, were there for anyone to see. I hope I am able to “toss out the bad so it can be forgotten” before I die. In other words, I’d like to select the parts of my thoughts to be immortal after I die…