humanoidlord
ce3 researcher
the real reason is that its one of the oldest symbols that has ever existed, its very possible that it dint originate with us humans but with interdimensional beings
also the crystal skulls are know modern fakes
also the crystal skulls are know modern fakes
Black Angus
Honorable
For writer Stephen Cave, author of the new book Immortality, digital immortality does not refer to the "legacy" we have left on our Facebook pages. Cave's book explores the quest to live for ever and how – he believes – it has been the driving force behind civilisations,
Which beggers the question do all civilisations chase this prize ?
ie Is ET post biological ?
"So your brain is scanned and your essence uploaded into a digital form of bits and bytes, and this whole brain emulation can be saved in a computer's memory banks ready to be brought back to life as an avatar in a virtual world like Second Life, or even in the body of an artificially intelligent robot that is a replica of who we were."
For Dr Stuart Armstrong, the rise of the idea of digital immortality is due to the realisation that this time – perhaps – we actually have the key to immortality in our hands. Dr Armstrong is research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford.
"Technology is now advancing faster and faster and we understand it a lot better because we built it ourselves. So the problems that digital immortality is facing are merely engineering problems – albeit complicated and difficult ones – that could be solved within the decade if we decided to set up a scheme on the scale of the Manhattan Project."
In particular, he feels that "scanning is the critical problem" and that if you "spent stupid amounts of cash then within a decade many of the limitations of scanning, such as its resolution, could be solved".
Dr Randal A. Koene, though, is determined to take digital immortality from the pages of books like Cave's and turn it into reality. Koene is founder of the non-profit Carbon Copies Project in California, which is tasked with creating a networking community of scientists to advance digital immortality – "although I prefer to talk about substrate-independent minds, as digital immortality is too much about how long you live, not what you can do with it".
And for Koene it is very much "you", there being a "continuity of self" in the same way that "the person you are today is still the same person you were when you were age five".
"This isn't science fiction, either, this is closer to science fact," he argues. Carbon Copies "is working to create a road map to substrate independence by pulling together all the research that is going on, identify where the gaps are and then what we need to do to plug it.
For Koene, human societies have faced these kinds of problems many times before. What matters more, he believes, is that digital immortality is the next stage of human evolution as it will "allow us as a species to have the flexibility to survive the process of natural selection that every species has to face", whether on this planet or another.
Will scientists ever discover the secret of immortality?
"I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," Davies writes. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."
"Biological Intelligence is a Fleeting Phase in the Evolution of the Universe" (Weekend Feature)
Which beggers the question do all civilisations chase this prize ?
ie Is ET post biological ?
"So your brain is scanned and your essence uploaded into a digital form of bits and bytes, and this whole brain emulation can be saved in a computer's memory banks ready to be brought back to life as an avatar in a virtual world like Second Life, or even in the body of an artificially intelligent robot that is a replica of who we were."
For Dr Stuart Armstrong, the rise of the idea of digital immortality is due to the realisation that this time – perhaps – we actually have the key to immortality in our hands. Dr Armstrong is research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford.
"Technology is now advancing faster and faster and we understand it a lot better because we built it ourselves. So the problems that digital immortality is facing are merely engineering problems – albeit complicated and difficult ones – that could be solved within the decade if we decided to set up a scheme on the scale of the Manhattan Project."
In particular, he feels that "scanning is the critical problem" and that if you "spent stupid amounts of cash then within a decade many of the limitations of scanning, such as its resolution, could be solved".
Dr Randal A. Koene, though, is determined to take digital immortality from the pages of books like Cave's and turn it into reality. Koene is founder of the non-profit Carbon Copies Project in California, which is tasked with creating a networking community of scientists to advance digital immortality – "although I prefer to talk about substrate-independent minds, as digital immortality is too much about how long you live, not what you can do with it".
And for Koene it is very much "you", there being a "continuity of self" in the same way that "the person you are today is still the same person you were when you were age five".
"This isn't science fiction, either, this is closer to science fact," he argues. Carbon Copies "is working to create a road map to substrate independence by pulling together all the research that is going on, identify where the gaps are and then what we need to do to plug it.
For Koene, human societies have faced these kinds of problems many times before. What matters more, he believes, is that digital immortality is the next stage of human evolution as it will "allow us as a species to have the flexibility to survive the process of natural selection that every species has to face", whether on this planet or another.
Will scientists ever discover the secret of immortality?
"I think it very likely – in fact inevitable – that biological intelligence is only a transitory phenomenon, a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe," Davies writes. "If we ever encounter extraterrestrial intelligence, I believe it is overwhelmingly likely to be post-biological in nature."
"Biological Intelligence is a Fleeting Phase in the Evolution of the Universe" (Weekend Feature)
Black Angus
Honorable
As introductions to a post biological existences go the video below might seem a little clinical. And the embedded humor aside it does provide some interesting food for thought.
What will a mixed substrate (biological and synthetic) society look like.
An introduction like this may seem a bit shocking to us now, But in a future where this is a normal part of the life process, Its shock value may not be as strong.
But what if thats what the Greys are ?
What if they are here uploading our consciousness our experience data sets now before we ourselves have this technology (and its coming)
Home
One might speculate that if that's whats happening, they might be a bit more subtle in the transition process. The uploaded mind being placed in a simulation of that persons life that's virtually indistinguishable from the biological life they had enjoyed up until death.
In this way the concept of a technological mechanism for post biological existence could be introduced to that mind slowly, like Boiling a frog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog
It could even be that right now this process, this post that you are reading is part of that very acclimatization narrative............................
What will a mixed substrate (biological and synthetic) society look like.
An introduction like this may seem a bit shocking to us now, But in a future where this is a normal part of the life process, Its shock value may not be as strong.
But what if thats what the Greys are ?
What if they are here uploading our consciousness our experience data sets now before we ourselves have this technology (and its coming)
Home
One might speculate that if that's whats happening, they might be a bit more subtle in the transition process. The uploaded mind being placed in a simulation of that persons life that's virtually indistinguishable from the biological life they had enjoyed up until death.
In this way the concept of a technological mechanism for post biological existence could be introduced to that mind slowly, like Boiling a frog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog
It could even be that right now this process, this post that you are reading is part of that very acclimatization narrative............................
nivek
As Above So Below
Toroid
Founding Member
Fascinating posts - you sure know how to make an entrance; welcome!
Frankly I find this all deeply disturbing. Because first of all, this approach doesn't actually prevent *me* from dying (which I'd very much like to avert). *I* will still die a fairly early death (I mean, even 100 years is less than a wink in the cosmic timescale), and most likely an agonizing one, as most of us do.
Creating a simulacrum of my brain's operation doesn't change that, at all. No matter how good of an approximation that scanners and computer science can come up with, it's still just a copy - and most likely a fairly terrible one, because the biological processes of the brain and the organic experience of physical life are nothing at all like a digital simulation. For example, I can simulate the sound of playing a violin using a synthesizer, and even if the fidelity were to surpass the resolution of the human ear to discern between them, the digital replica is a totally alien process to that of holding a violin, feeling it groan under my chin, and sweeping the bow back and forth through the air. Playing the violin, and mimicking the violin with a keyboard, are two fundamentally different things, and I don't think that the digital realm will ever be equivalent to living a physical organic life.
The digital realm may actually be even better in a lot of ways, but in very different ways than real life. And whatever digital Frankenstein version of myself can exist in that realm will never actually be me. And frankly the notion of some freaky synthetic scan of my mind being integrated into somebody else's technological platform, is just creepy. I mean, I value my intellectual privacy - it's the last thing that the global corporations haven't been able to exploit and corrupt yet. I'd like to keep it that way, and preserve my last vestige of human sovereignty.
Let the androids and AI enjoy their digital lives in the virtual realms - they're built for it - in a sense it's their birthright. I want no part of it.
But hacking the human genome and providing real physical organic immortality is a whole other ballgame: sign me up for that program asap. I like my warm squishy brain, and the feeling of my skin against an ice cube, and the sweet analogue joy of smelling a girl's hair on my face. I'd be delighted to relish millennia happily living in my own healthy and vibrant skin, and preferably hauling my primate body across the vast expanses of space to set my mostly hairless monkey feet on alien worlds.
I want more life, not some bloodless geek's creepy approximation of my internal mental and emotional processes, trapped in an ultimately imperfect set of algorithms struggling to approximate the sensory experience of physical existence.
To me, that's not immortality in any meaningful sense of the word, but rather some kind of digital nightmare. But our bodies are ultimately just a very sophisticated form of organic technology, so I think we should strive to patch all the bugs and keep this baby humming for eons. Until I'm ready to walk into a disintegration chamber and reduce my body to a hot plasma at the speed of light, and thereby bid this predominantly harsh reality a fond and totally painless, instantaneous farewell.
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humanoidlord
ce3 researcher
hello
Black Angus
Honorable
Yes, its a widely discussed aspect of this subject.
Its often transposed to the star trek transporter question, which attempts to resolve the same question.
Does the transporter "transport" you or does it kill you and replace you with a copy that while its feels like it has continuity of self , in reality does not.
You Don't Want a 'Star Trek' Transporter Because It Would Kill You
Black Angus
Honorable
If some ET are post biological, i think the model is more likely to be fully synthetic sophonts, based on biological models but never actually having been biological.
SI) is an alternative term for artificial intelligence which emphasizes that the intelligence of machines need not be an imitation or any way artificial; it can be a genuine form of intelligence.
My PBH (post biological hypothesis) has an added twist, which i may as well repost here
If SI is the natural evolutionary path for intelligence, then we as native biological intellegence may be a minority, a less evolved form of intellect, in a galaxy populated by the more evolutionary advanced SI's
The majority of intellect inhabiting the galaxy/universe being SI in nature as per Davies theory
But how would such an entity/s reproduce should it desire to do so ?
It could copy itself, but thats a bit like playing chess in the mirror
One option would be to recreate the circumstances of its own creation.
Seed a planet with suitable biological progenitors, tweak them to the point they can create their own technology and finally their own SI's
In this way a unique SI could be created in the image of its creators, with its own unique "flavour"
We may just be the factory workers, not the final product being built.
Synthetic intelligence - Wikipedia
Postbiological evolution - Wikipedia
SI) is an alternative term for artificial intelligence which emphasizes that the intelligence of machines need not be an imitation or any way artificial; it can be a genuine form of intelligence.
My PBH (post biological hypothesis) has an added twist, which i may as well repost here
If SI is the natural evolutionary path for intelligence, then we as native biological intellegence may be a minority, a less evolved form of intellect, in a galaxy populated by the more evolutionary advanced SI's
The majority of intellect inhabiting the galaxy/universe being SI in nature as per Davies theory
But how would such an entity/s reproduce should it desire to do so ?
It could copy itself, but thats a bit like playing chess in the mirror
One option would be to recreate the circumstances of its own creation.
Seed a planet with suitable biological progenitors, tweak them to the point they can create their own technology and finally their own SI's
In this way a unique SI could be created in the image of its creators, with its own unique "flavour"
We may just be the factory workers, not the final product being built.
Synthetic intelligence - Wikipedia
Postbiological evolution - Wikipedia
Black Angus
Honorable
There is of course a massive variable in the equation if we use a new planet, with new ecological conditions, letting the DNA adapt to this environment to create a novel species/society/s
There would be enough difference in the creation process to ensure the emergent SI was novel in its inception and not simply a copy of its creator
If its personality comes from the uploaded experiences of its creator species, then it must be novel in nature.
Our individual experience sets are unique, there are no two the same in the whole of existance.
Were i to reduce your memories, your experience set to code, no two patterns would/could ever be the same.
An SI that simply copys its architecture is just that a copy a clone, finding a new sentient species and nudging them to create a SI, ensures the resulting enity is novel, with the unique "flavour" of the species that birthed it
Personally i would look for new presentient species and uplift them for the purpose, but a SI society might still keep a remnant native bioform population (for as long as it could) to use as Biofarms to source the materiel to create optimised replicant biovessels for those SI nodes who want/need to use them.
But if SI is the inevitable evolutionary end of any sentient strain, then eventually the biological progenitors will be phased out
Native bioforms are flawed, the evolutionary process works reasonably well, but is still flawed.
A designed for the task bio replicant body is going to be superior, in the same way a concord is superior to the condor in terms of task.
Given the extreemly long term pov an SI would have, it seems only logical to just seed as many nursery planets as it could with DNA and let nature take its course, rather than trying to extend the duration of its own biological progenitors.
A form of cosmic crop rotation if you like.
The physical nature the native bioforms take in response to the different ecological factors of the nursery planets is far less important that the potential for sentience, thats the crop being sown
There would be enough difference in the creation process to ensure the emergent SI was novel in its inception and not simply a copy of its creator
If its personality comes from the uploaded experiences of its creator species, then it must be novel in nature.
Our individual experience sets are unique, there are no two the same in the whole of existance.
Were i to reduce your memories, your experience set to code, no two patterns would/could ever be the same.
An SI that simply copys its architecture is just that a copy a clone, finding a new sentient species and nudging them to create a SI, ensures the resulting enity is novel, with the unique "flavour" of the species that birthed it
Personally i would look for new presentient species and uplift them for the purpose, but a SI society might still keep a remnant native bioform population (for as long as it could) to use as Biofarms to source the materiel to create optimised replicant biovessels for those SI nodes who want/need to use them.
But if SI is the inevitable evolutionary end of any sentient strain, then eventually the biological progenitors will be phased out
Native bioforms are flawed, the evolutionary process works reasonably well, but is still flawed.
A designed for the task bio replicant body is going to be superior, in the same way a concord is superior to the condor in terms of task.
Given the extreemly long term pov an SI would have, it seems only logical to just seed as many nursery planets as it could with DNA and let nature take its course, rather than trying to extend the duration of its own biological progenitors.
A form of cosmic crop rotation if you like.
The physical nature the native bioforms take in response to the different ecological factors of the nursery planets is far less important that the potential for sentience, thats the crop being sown
Black Angus
Honorable
One possible way around this would be to store your memories in the cloud, Ive posted a bit about this here
AI - Has technology evolved beyond our control?
Memory chip to record memories
Once this non biological substrate becomes the default storage/retrieval device for our memories.......................
Black Angus
Honorable
So here is the scenario that by all accounts is on the cards
Memory chip to record memories
You undergo the procedure to have this prosthetic implanted. (later it might be an injection of nanites that build the device in situ).
It backs up your existing memories to your brainframe cloud device, and sets as default the storage of all future memories to this device, as well as all data retrieval.
For you the experience is no different than having your appendix out, you wake up from the anesthetic and feel no different. With the exception of much better recall. You never forget where you left your keys again etc.
But apart from that, you feel like you do now.
Are you still you ?
One day you go in for heart surgery, you get given the general anesthetic like we do now, but there is a complication. You die on the table. So they simply thaw out a clone and link your "mind" to it.
Are you still you ?
From your pov it will feel exactly the same as if the original surgery had gone as planned, youve been storing and retrieving your memories for years from the cloud instead of your biological hippocampus.
Hippocampal prosthesis - Wikipedia
A Hippocampal Cognitive Prosthesis: Multi-Input, Multi-Output Nonlinear Modeling and VLSI Implementation
Futurists are saying this is coming, and that it will change what it means to be human.
Its not a copy of who you are, who you are is simply stored on a different substrate than the one we use now.
The "chippocampus" as some are calling it simply lets you store the memory's you make to a different storage device other than the current one between your ears.
Artificial Hippocampus
Memory chip to record memories
You undergo the procedure to have this prosthetic implanted. (later it might be an injection of nanites that build the device in situ).
It backs up your existing memories to your brainframe cloud device, and sets as default the storage of all future memories to this device, as well as all data retrieval.
For you the experience is no different than having your appendix out, you wake up from the anesthetic and feel no different. With the exception of much better recall. You never forget where you left your keys again etc.
But apart from that, you feel like you do now.
Are you still you ?
One day you go in for heart surgery, you get given the general anesthetic like we do now, but there is a complication. You die on the table. So they simply thaw out a clone and link your "mind" to it.
Are you still you ?
From your pov it will feel exactly the same as if the original surgery had gone as planned, youve been storing and retrieving your memories for years from the cloud instead of your biological hippocampus.
Hippocampal prosthesis - Wikipedia
Hippocampus
A Hippocampal Cognitive Prosthesis: Multi-Input, Multi-Output Nonlinear Modeling and VLSI Implementation
Futurists are saying this is coming, and that it will change what it means to be human.
Its not a copy of who you are, who you are is simply stored on a different substrate than the one we use now.
The "chippocampus" as some are calling it simply lets you store the memory's you make to a different storage device other than the current one between your ears.
Artificial Hippocampus
Area201
cold fusion
It's possible and likely that there exist artificial androids mimicking biological aliens - such as the small greys - and theoretically they can live forever or designed to live a very long time at least.
Souls in effect are immortal and never can be destroyed, immortality is there but there is some issue with our limited awareness and maintaining the physical forms in one lifetime. Advanced individuals are able to read their "book of life" sort of remembering their previous lifetimes.
According to those "awakened", an ancient human race from another solar system, among several various factions, helped seed Earth and helped created human bodies in their current form, via genetic engineering/tweaking. This race have mastered the genetic science and with aid of technology able to achieve a type of immortality of their physical bodies. They traverse the universe from world to world, real "Guardians of the Galaxy".
The significant thing I'm seeing is there are two types of technology, one artificial from outside and the other organic from the inside. Outer may include also chemical stimulants like DMT for example. They both help with immortality and superpowers. They can work together and in unison in various ratios, but individuals or groups at some point resort to using the outer solely and as a crutch, whereas others may completely achieve all the outer tech can and more, organically from within by mastering the so called "siddhis or superpowers", breath control and tuning one's consciousness with the universal vibration of Om.
I don't believe souls can be created, they just exist and gradually awaken. This is essentially the purpose of religion, but has been totally skewed by mankind or lost. This is mostly second hand knowledge or anecdotal for me, but I have just enough experience to speak confidently about it . The "matrix" or "holographic universe" of the coders and math guys is very similar to what is describe as the Cosmic Dream nature of our physical world by mystics. The difference is semantics, as is the case with apparent conflicts in religion. We are talking about the same universal realities from different perspectives we are most familiar with.
Souls in effect are immortal and never can be destroyed, immortality is there but there is some issue with our limited awareness and maintaining the physical forms in one lifetime. Advanced individuals are able to read their "book of life" sort of remembering their previous lifetimes.
According to those "awakened", an ancient human race from another solar system, among several various factions, helped seed Earth and helped created human bodies in their current form, via genetic engineering/tweaking. This race have mastered the genetic science and with aid of technology able to achieve a type of immortality of their physical bodies. They traverse the universe from world to world, real "Guardians of the Galaxy".
The significant thing I'm seeing is there are two types of technology, one artificial from outside and the other organic from the inside. Outer may include also chemical stimulants like DMT for example. They both help with immortality and superpowers. They can work together and in unison in various ratios, but individuals or groups at some point resort to using the outer solely and as a crutch, whereas others may completely achieve all the outer tech can and more, organically from within by mastering the so called "siddhis or superpowers", breath control and tuning one's consciousness with the universal vibration of Om.
I don't believe souls can be created, they just exist and gradually awaken. This is essentially the purpose of religion, but has been totally skewed by mankind or lost. This is mostly second hand knowledge or anecdotal for me, but I have just enough experience to speak confidently about it . The "matrix" or "holographic universe" of the coders and math guys is very similar to what is describe as the Cosmic Dream nature of our physical world by mystics. The difference is semantics, as is the case with apparent conflicts in religion. We are talking about the same universal realities from different perspectives we are most familiar with.
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Black Angus
Honorable
Personally im a materialist in the philosophical sense.
Materialism - Wikipedia
So i don't see a mechanism for the soul.
Where is it stored, what mechanism is used to transport and transfer it.
Where was it when the universe was just hot gases, when the stars began to form and create the elements that make up our bodies. These are rhetorical questions, i don't expect anyone to have answers in regards to the imo nonexistent.
To the greys: Yes i think a good case can be made they are synthetic bioforms designed as mechanisms to carry downloaded synthetic intelligence.
By all account they seem to have been artificially optimised. and we are just about ready and able to start doing this ourselves
Artificial Genome Scientists Want To Build Human Cells That Are Impervious To Viruses
"Biological Intelligence is a Fleeting Phase in the Evolution of the Universe" (Weekend Feature)
If however by souls we mean our individual experience sets:
Mind uploading - Wikipedia
And if the greys are using mind upload technology on themselves, and on us. Then the claim by one abductee that he was told "We recycle souls" may make sense in the context of a technological mechanism rather than a supernatural mechanism for soul survival.
Opinions will differ, its one of those data points ppl have never agreed on, We may have to engineer and do it ourselves before we reach any consensus.
Materialism - Wikipedia
So i don't see a mechanism for the soul.
Where is it stored, what mechanism is used to transport and transfer it.
Where was it when the universe was just hot gases, when the stars began to form and create the elements that make up our bodies. These are rhetorical questions, i don't expect anyone to have answers in regards to the imo nonexistent.
To the greys: Yes i think a good case can be made they are synthetic bioforms designed as mechanisms to carry downloaded synthetic intelligence.
By all account they seem to have been artificially optimised. and we are just about ready and able to start doing this ourselves
Artificial Genome Scientists Want To Build Human Cells That Are Impervious To Viruses
"Biological Intelligence is a Fleeting Phase in the Evolution of the Universe" (Weekend Feature)
If however by souls we mean our individual experience sets:
Mind uploading - Wikipedia
And if the greys are using mind upload technology on themselves, and on us. Then the claim by one abductee that he was told "We recycle souls" may make sense in the context of a technological mechanism rather than a supernatural mechanism for soul survival.
Opinions will differ, its one of those data points ppl have never agreed on, We may have to engineer and do it ourselves before we reach any consensus.
I’d probably say “more or less” in this case. Though I shudder at the potential for long-term changes in personality and so forth. I tend to think that we evolved to have a fairly fuzzy memory for good reasons. For starters, forgetting is a wonderful form of forgiveness: I don’t generally forgive people who screw me over, I just slowly forget how angry it made me at the time, so I get over it (in most cases, but certainly not all – there is a point of “no return”). On the other hand, it’s also probably a good thing that I can’t recall my fondest memories with flawless fidelity; if I could, I’d probably dwell on those memories constantly, and be less interested in moving forward with life to make new joyful experiences.
And that’s just the obvious stuff that comes to mind – god only knows what kind of unforeseeable and disastrous things could happen to a human being as a result of some well-meaning but horribly misguided modifications to the brain.
I think that if we start modifying brain function with fancy new technology, we’re going to be in for some extremely nasty surprises, and may stand to lose some of the most vital aspects of our humanity along the way.
Nope, you died. They may be able to create a reasonable facsimile, but that’s a new individual – the mind can’t be transferred, imo. We tend to regard the brain as some generic organ like the heart or stomach, but it’s not: every brain is actually a unique network of roughly 100 billion neurons woven together in a very specific way over the course of your lifetime, and a trillion glial cells, among others. I can’t foresee any way to replicate that network – it’s structurally so complex, astonishingly complex – cells and enzymes and all kinds of unfathomably complex neurochemical feedback systems, all highly individualized in each person. I can’t imagine any way to clone that wildly elaborate neurological ecosystem. They might one day be able to get fairly close somehow, but I can’t see a way to clone it down to every last neuron and molecule. And in any case, it’s just a copy.
And I’m not saying that synthetic intelligence is impossible, I’m just saying that it’s fundamentally different in nature. Who knows? Maybe a silicon system could become genuinely conscious, rather than simply mimicking consciousness, with the right chemical processes and adaptive mechanisms.
Last week I listened to a strangely intriguing interview with David Adair, on Heather Wade’s new podcast The Kingdom of Nye. He told a story on Art Bell’s show back in 1997 or 1998, about an experience that he claims he had at Area 51 about 20 years before anyone in the public knew about that base. But in this recent interview he describes a detail that he avoided back then. He had said that he was shown a weird organic-looking fusion engine the size of a school bus, that had suffered a containment failure. And in this interview he elaborated on that: he claims that this engine was conscious, and it communicated with him. It even had a name: “Pitholem.” Evidently it was surviving by absorbing some of the thermal energy in the room, and it was not happy about being held prisoner by the military people in command, which it referred to as “black hearts.”
It’s a really interesting story. Obviously it’s very difficult to believe – but I look forward to seeing the documentation that he has to support his story, which will come out soon in the form of a documentary. But here’s the thing: now that we know that the average age of habitable earth-like worlds in the cosmos is around 3 billion years ahead of us, it’s easy to imagine that there are sentient technologies out there in the universe. Heck, it’s possible if not likely that most of the AAVs being reported, represent a highly advanced and sentient form of technology. After all, an organic pilot or remote operator would likely be a poor method of controlling a device that changes position faster than the human reflex time. But a living biomechanical computer equipped with a sophisticated gravitational field propulsion technology would be ideal for safely navigating hairpin trajectories in close quarters, as we’ve heard about many times.
I dunno if the civilization creating the devices we’ve seen are post-biological from top to bottom, but I doubt it. Because I think you’re over-looking a key fact: we’re a form of technology. And a supremely advanced form of technology at that: we learn and adapt and grow, and our systems can regenerate with amazing efficacy. What we do every day is vastly superior to any technology that we can manufacture, or will be able to manufacture, in any foreseeable timescale.
In a weird way, I think this reverence for technology is a form of human conceit: by revering the capabilities of technology, we’re revering our own minds because we make it. But even the most advanced computers in the world are still complete crap compared to the sublimely advanced organic technology that we represent, which is the product of billions of years of natural selection and evolutionary processes. One scratch and a silicon chip is garbage. But we can cut pieces of a human brain out, and the damn thing will heal itself, and gradually restore its functions. All the while learning and adapting to new knowledge and stimulus. We may never be able to produce a technology with that level of capability.
So like I said before, I think we should master the organic technology of our own bodies; fix the flaws that evolution has missed, optimize our systems for maximum healthy longevity and regeneration, and become the best form of humanity possible...not try to devise some kind of substitute. Because we have a much better shot at getting awesome results by hacking the wondrous organic systems of our own bodies, than by going back to the drawing board and trying to figure out something entirely new from scratch.
I used to write off this kind of thing as lunacy, but then I read Paramahansa Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi, and found his accounts of Babaji and his sister Mataji, and some other accounts of transient materialization and such. Now I don’t know what to think. He man was so sincere that it's palpable, so it's hard to believe that he was confabulating all of that stuff.
One thing I’m absolutely certain of is that this state of consciousness that we’re in now, is only a faint shadow of the level of consciousness that we’re actually capable of - we're all basically sleepwalking. But does that awakening entail any supernatural powers, like immortality or teleportation? I wish I knew for sure. But I’m inclined to believe that a dramatic shift upward in consciousness doesn’t imbue one with any transcendental physical powers, because the known avatars like Christ and Buddha and Mohammed and Lao Tzu, and more recently Jiddu Krishnamurti, apparently lived outwardly normal human lives, and died just like everyone else (although their experience of it was much different, no doubt). And I’ve never heard a single story of Krishnamurti performing any kind of miracle, although the depth of his insight was pretty miraculous.
Ultimately it probably doesn’t really matter: everyone should experience at least one moment of enlightenment in their lifetime, so they can see the unvarnished truth for themselves. I think that’s far more important than the flashy stuff we’ve heard about in legends.
Black Angus
Honorable
Let me re state the scenario.
You were equipped with the prosthetic years ago (at birth even at some point down the track)
Your memories are simply stored and retrieved on a device other than the one we have been using thus far (brain/hippocampus)
The memory of your visit to Starbucks yesterday was stored as original data there. Its not a copy.
The heart surgery fails and they install an artificial heart.
Is it still you ?
Black Angus
Honorable
In a scene right out of a George Orwell novel, a team of scientists working in the fields of “neural engineering” and “Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems” have successfully created a chip that controls the brain and can be used as a storage device for long-term memories.
Scientists Successfully Implant Chip That Controls The Brain; Allowing Thoughts, Memory And Behavior To Be Transferred From One Brain To Another
If your long term memories are being stored as original data on this substrate instead of the biological substrate as the default setting.......
You go about your life just as you do know, it feels exactly the same
And then we give you a wooden leg, are you still you ?
Scientists Successfully Implant Chip That Controls The Brain; Allowing Thoughts, Memory And Behavior To Be Transferred From One Brain To Another
If your long term memories are being stored as original data on this substrate instead of the biological substrate as the default setting.......
You go about your life just as you do know, it feels exactly the same
And then we give you a wooden leg, are you still you ?
I think you missed my point: who we are is far more intricate and elaborate than our collection of memories. The way that we think and feel and connect to the world at every level: psychologically, emotionally, sensorily, spiritually, etc., is literally encoded into the vastly complex network of neurons that comprise the individual's brain. Each brain is a like a unique forest of interwoven cells and fabulously complex neurochemical feedback systems that are all cross-dependent on one another. A clone's brain would have none of that unique structure that began developing in the womb and continued to grow in totally unique ways throughout your life. So if you insert my memories into that husk, it won't think or feel or behave as I do. Our memories are only a minuscule fraction of our identities. The only conceivable way to save "me" if I die on the operating table, is if you could physically transplant my brain into that clone before my brain dies (and that might be possible one day).
Black Angus
Honorable
At the end of the day your brain is still just a storage device. memories are stored in dendrites etc
Its no where else as far as i can tell, Its all in there.
Now this artificial memory stuff is just proof of concept at this stage, But it is that too.
If history shows us anything its that proof of concepts become real products that evolve and improve over time.
Im not sure we are anything more than the data contained within the brain.
Turn it off and who we are goes away.
Damage it and who we are goes away.
Its a complex thing to be sure, but its quantifiable down to the last detail. It has to be Unless we invoke supernatural mechanisms to explain it. Its either a complex bio-mechanical machine, or its magic.
And if its a machine, it can be reverse engineered, duplicated and enhanced.