Your children will never have to die!

[TetsuoShima]

This is freaky, but very powerfull stuff.

 

If you can believe him, that is.

 

If you can lengthen you life until 2080, you won't even have to die youself. I'm not sure wether we will have accomplished by then what this guy is telling, but if we have, the whole world will change!

 

Time to improve those computer-skills, because by the end of this century, they will be essential to your survival! :rolleyes:

 

Man, I can only imagine what possibilities this technology would bring to humanity!

[Engineer101]

Boo! its better to be a robot with a human brain. like from Dune. During the Machine War

[BorisP]

Immortality is stupid. People are supposed to die.

 

Wait until you get old and you will understand. People die because they get bored or tired of their current life.

 

People that life forever have no ambition. What is the hurry? They life forever. They can do it next century.

 

Plus, the older people get, the more sick in the head they get. With reincarnation, they get rid of all that head sickness and start off fresh.

 

Besides. Would you rather have an immortal spirit or an immortal body? With an immortal body, you are stuck with the same one forever. With an immortal spirit, every time you reincarnate, you get to choose a new body. Just like a video game.

 

Want to be Black? Asian? Hispanic? White? Male? Female? Redheaded? Blond? Brunette? Big? Small?

 

Just reincarnate into whatever you want.

[TetsuoShima]

Immortality is stupid. People are supposed to die.

 

Wait until you get old and you will understand. People die because they get bored or tired of their current life.

 

People that life forever have no ambition. What is the hurry? They life forever. They can do it next century.

 

Plus, the older people get, the more sick in the head they get. With reincarnation, they get rid of all that head sickness and start off fresh.

 

Besides. Would you rather have an immortal spirit or an immortal body? With an immortal body, you are stuck with the same one forever. With an immortal spirit, every time you reincarnate, you get to choose a new body. Just like a video game.

 

Want to be Black? Asian? Hispanic? White? Male? Female? Redheaded? Blond? Brunette? Big? Small?

 

Just reincarnate into whatever you want.

 

Did you even read/understand the article?

[GorunNova]

I don't think he did... He seems to think it's about people prolonging life in their birth body, as opposed to transferrence of intelligence.

 

Besides, immortality is a misnomer, practically speaking. The best we could get is an indefinite lifespan, which is wholly different... chance events will always kill us off eventually, and unless we figure out how to leave the universe, we'll only last 'til heat death / the big crunch happens.

 

Heh... there's no more empirical support for reincarnation than there is for heaven. Still, believe what you will, as long as it doesn't cause anyone's premature death ^^

 

Also... there's a lot of evidence that longer life spans have contributed to human advancement, just like increased leisure time. Longer lifespans = more chance of embarking on long term research tasks that would otherwise be either nonviable or delayed by passing data on between generations.

 

Now, if we could just get rid of this pathological dislike for smarts that breeds in the school system and the addiction to excessive profits that comes afterwards...

 

Edit: Still, I'm not sure I like the idea of being purely resident in a virtual space... but by that time, hopefully they'll be able to supply these digital copies bodies... and hopefully we won't be confined to this planet.

 

Hey! Digital backup would make the -best- form of life support for interstellar trips... this invention, if it happens, could lead to long distance space travel!

[Vektram]

It doesn't say that we'll be able to upload brains though. :( I want genius babies!

[anonymity]

Hey, isn't that what the Asgards are doing? Hahaha.

 

Kidding aside, the topic obviously involves advanced neurobiology and advanced technology. Downloading the mind to a computer is one thing but to interface the downloaded mind with another object/thing/body is another matter.

 

Come to think of it, it took years for our baby minds to learn and master control of our body (excluding the primitive built-in functions like breathing, eating, etc.). Transfering the mind to an alien body might require some time for the mind to learn to interface with the alien body. That is to say, if learning is part of the design of the new body, otherwise, the downloaded mind would simple become backed-up in a container.

 

I agree that immortality is a misnomer in this physical world. Having the ability to continuously regenerate our body indefinitely would make us appear to achieve a measure of immortality. Having the ability to transfer our consciousness to a newer younger version of ourselves would also make us appear to achieve a measure of immortality, just as the Asgards do.

Living for hundreds of thousands of years is still not immortality, it just makes it look like immortality. And besides, living for an extended period of time allows for one to make a lot of achievements.

 

One thing for sure is we live in an interesting time and I'd definitely like to experience science fiction of a great magnitude coming true for the benefit of mankind. I'd definitely say it's about time. So bring on the replicators, warp drives, united Earth government, inter-species alliance, and all good things.

[anonymity]

"You need a complete global debate' date='" he said. "Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one."[/quote']

 

I think this is a sensitive topic! If we achieve the capability to create a "lifeform", do we have the license to "give life"? And if we do, no doubt the "lifeform" would percieve us as god.

Sounds familiar?

 

Obviously, we would create machines to primarily help mankind do work. But on the other hand, philosophically, man finds fullfilment in work. Who created man in the first place?

Sounds familiar?

 

If we build machines as smart as people, would it not gain "humanity" per se? If it does and when it comes to it senses one day to do an act that goes against us, would we not be forced to treat it "humanely"? No doubt it would be "banished" or punished for its act. But since it is us who created them, there would be some of us who would be merciful.

Sounds familiar? (Try Garden of Eden story)

[GorunNova]

"Oh these foolish men! They could not create so much as a worm, but they create gods by the dozens." --Michel de Montaigne

[S0V13T]

"I fully intend to live well past one hundred-fourty years."

- Nikola Tesla

[MrDad]

 

DVDs

Star Trek: The Original Series Season One set

[uSA] [Canada] [France] [uK] [Germany]

Episode Title: "WHAT ARE LITTLE GIRLS MADE OF?"

Production Number: 10

Original Air Date: 10-20-66

Stardates: 2712.4

 

Synopsis: The U.S.S. Enterprise arrives at planet Exo-III to search for Dr. Roger Korby, who has been out of contact for five years. Captain Kirk beams down to the planet's underground ruins with Nurse Christine Chapel, who was engaged to Korby before his disappearance.

 

They learn that an android called Ruk, who was left by the "old ones" centuries ago to tend the machinery, is working with Korby, and that members of Korby's staff are also androids, created with technology Korby found on the planet. Korby refuses to let Kirk and Chapel return to the Enterprise until he has had a chance to explain the importance of his discovery.

 

Korby creates an android duplicate of Kirk, and plans to use the Enterprise to travel to other planets and secretly create more androids, who can be programmed without unpredictable emotions, ending war and suffering in the Galaxy. But the real Kirk makes Ruk remember how the androids on the planet destroyed their creators, the "old ones," because they were inconsistent and unpredictable. Kirk convinces Ruk that Korby is also a danger to the planet's order, and Korby is forced to destroy Ruk. When Kirk and Korby struggle over a phaser, Korby's hand is damaged and Kirk and Chapel learn he is an android. He was duplicated years ago with the planet's technology when the real Korby was frozen and near death. When the Korby android learns that his dream of perfection is not possible, he destroys himself and the last other remaining android.

 

With her fiancé dead, Nurse Chapel decides to continue serving aboard the Enterprise.

 

# Factoid: Nurse Christine Chapel gave up a career in bio-research to sign aboard a starship.

 

# Factoid: Planet Exo-III has gravity that is 1.1 of Earth, but the surface temperature is 100 degrees below zero. The planet's sun has been fading steadily for a half-million years.

 

# Factoid: Dr. Roger Korby is often called the Pasteur of archaeological medicine. His translation of medical records from the Orion ruins revolutionized immunization techniques.

 

# Factoid: George Samuel Kirk is Captain Kirk's brother. Only Captain Kirk calls him "Sam." Captain Kirk's brother saw him off on his current mission, with his wife and three sons. He said he was continuing his research and wanted to be transferred to the Earth Colony Two research station.

 

What benefit will it be to you

if you gain the whole world

but lose your own soul?

[rcazant]

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

 

So I guess we live to see the first real data's :)

that's quite promising don't you agree?

[anonymity]

If we are capable of giving birth to a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence, then we desperately need to focus more one ourselves, for the betterment of all mankind.

 

All these potential and yet the world still suffer from wars, hunger, unjustice, greed, immorality, etc.

 

If this is one of the hard evidences that shows the 2 sides of humanity, then it is possible that building a computer with superhuman intelligence would also mean imparting it with our good as well as our evil. ...wait! isn't there a story about man eating from the tree of the knowledge of good an evil? (so that we may become like God)

Sounds familiar? Again!?

[Rocky1980]

Interesting very interersting

 

[BorisP]

Immortality is stupid. People are supposed to die.

 

Wait until you get old and you will understand. People die because they get bored or tired of their current life.

 

People that life forever have no ambition. What is the hurry? They life forever. They can do it next century.

 

Plus, the older people get, the more sick in the head they get. With reincarnation, they get rid of all that head sickness and start off fresh.

 

Besides. Would you rather have an immortal spirit or an immortal body? With an immortal body, you are stuck with the same one forever. With an immortal spirit, every time you reincarnate, you get to choose a new body. Just like a video game.

 

Want to be Black? Asian? Hispanic? White? Male? Female? Redheaded? Blond? Brunette? Big? Small?

 

Just reincarnate into whatever you want.

 

Did you even read/understand the article?

 

 

Nope. I didn't read it. Now I just looked at it. My opinion is just the same.

[BorisP]

 

Heh... there's no more empirical support for reincarnation than there is for heaven. Still, believe what you will, as long as it doesn't cause anyone's premature death ^^

 

 

As long as you keep looking for empirical support, you will be smug until the day you die.

 

When you are talking about the spiritual, it is about what you believe and about what some other kind person is willing to teach you.

 

If no one will teach you, you will be forever locked out of the spiritual.

 

If you go around telling people there is no proof and you don't believe them and expressing all this doubt, why would they help you?

 

It is your choice. Be a grounded scientific person, stuck with numbers and computers and writing things down, or open yourself up to the spiritual and learn what it means to be human.

 

I predict that by the time you are 35 or 40, you will lose all interest in computers and science. Around 35 or 40 you will realize that, yes, you are going to die. There is no way to stop it.

 

When you realize you WILL die, computers mean nothing. Numbers mean nothing. Video games and Science Fiction TV shows and movies all mean nothing.

 

You will begin to wonder why you are here and what is your purpose. There has to be more than you are just an animal like a cow, here to eat until you die. Or you will think that anyways as the fear of death hits you.

 

Then, and maybe only then, can you truly appreciate why you want to believe in the spiritual, proof or not. It is then, in the depths of your fear of dying, that you will be so afraid that you will be willing to open your brain and allow someone to show you that there really is a spiritual side to life.

[tinpusher]

Hmmm. . . This raises all sorts of ethical questions.

 

1. Do we ahve the right to "give life?" (Child Birth and rearing aside, of course)

 

2. If so, do we have the right to give life to an object whose sole design purpose is to be a helper to human kind, because if we do are we not just building super sophisticated slaves?

 

3. If the contents of a human brain (conciousness?) can be downloaded to a computer, how long will it be before it can then be uploaded to a new host?

 

4. Would that host have the right to choose whether it would allow the upload?

 

5. Would we begin breeding (cloneing?) new bodies for the sole purpose of receiving said uploads?

 

6. If so what (if any) rights does the clone have?

 

Just something to think about. . .

[GorunNova]

As long as you keep looking for empirical support, you will be smug until the day you die.

 

When you are talking about the spiritual, it is about what you believe and about what some other kind person is willing to teach you.

What does smugness have to do with anything? I'm not smug... I just don't consider blind belief without proof a valid mechanism for understanding the universe in any real way. Humans in general have a wonderful talent for picking out patterns where there aren't any, and deluding themselves with weird ideas that have no real basis.

 

Faith is unquestioning belief, and that's something I can't do. I have to question everything ^^.

 

If no one will teach you, you will be forever locked out of the spiritual.

 

If you go around telling people there is no proof and you don't believe them and expressing all this doubt, why would they help you?

 

It is your choice. Be a grounded scientific person, stuck with numbers and computers and writing things down, or open yourself up to the spiritual and learn what it means to be human.

Ummm... right. One must believe in things blindly, worship invisible spirits, and hold to all sorts of arbitrary, baseless ideas to be human. That makes no sense to me... sorry.

 

I predict that by the time you are 35 or 40, you will lose all interest in computers and science. Around 35 or 40 you will realize that, yes, you are going to die. There is no way to stop it.

 

When you realize you WILL die, computers mean nothing. Numbers mean nothing. Video games and Science Fiction TV shows and movies all mean nothing.

 

You will begin to wonder why you are here and what is your purpose. There has to be more than you are just an animal like a cow, here to eat until you die. Or you will think that anyways as the fear of death hits you.

 

Then, and maybe only then, can you truly appreciate why you want to believe in the spiritual, proof or not. It is then, in the depths of your fear of dying, that you will be so afraid that you will be willing to open your brain and allow someone to show you that there really is a spiritual side to life.

Everything is more valuable to me BECAUSE I'm going to die... it's inevitable. It happens to everybody. There's no point in worrying about it. I won't debase what I think is the most accurate way to uncover the truth about the universe around me just because it's not comforting or 'spiritual', whatever the hell that really means. 'Spiritual' seems to mean different things to everybody, making it mostly worthless as a symbol.

 

As I said, believe what you will... I don't care, because the universe will be the same regardless of what you believe. I just believe in examining it, listening to it, and letting it tell me what it is in a systematic way without relying on strange, groundless supernatural crap that I make up off the top of my head without further analysis.

 

I look about me, and enjoy this world, and all aspects of it. I will believe anything... as long as I have a compelling, non-arbitrary, and non-irrational reason to do so that doesn't limit me or blind myself to what is really there.

 

Did you even read/understand the article?

Nope. I didn't read it. Now I just looked at it. My opinion is just the same.

*sigh* I'm feeding a troll, aren't I? -_-'

[MrDad]

With this sort of technology, it adds new meaning to "Is it live or is it Memorex?"

[piepie]

This relates to my "transporters and mind.soul" thread, though it's even harder to visualise. Once you're uploaded into a computer, and are actually conscious and learning to perceive the world, what would happen if someone copied your "file". You'll have to read the other thread because it's a bloody hard thing to explain.