Thus far, no-one has refuted the concept behind sending digital humans on a beam of light to another star. It's not for lack of readers since a great many have read the articles and this is the one which started it. (Ithaka: Sending Humans to the Stars on Beams of Light #Science #Physics #Fantasy)
There are two primary chokepoints in the suspension of disbelief since there's the matter of the mechanics of sending a starship to an exoplanet and meeting it with a laser containing encoded digital data. Then there is the acceptance of the idea humans can be digitized to exist externally relative to any corporeal manifestation.
As Paul Delph once sang ... "I Don't Need No Body" which makes a play on a similar thing.
Ref: exceptional Cincinnati musician who headed out to L.A. to play with the Big Dawgs (e.g. John Goodsall).
There's probably more of a choke on the idea of digitizing a human since objections may range from believing it's scientifically impossible to faith reasons which may dictate the soul cannot possibly be cloned or transferred in such a way.
The Rockhouse bases the idea on relentless research into neural networks to discover precisely how the brain accomplishes things. We have high confidence such research will lead to robos which are indistinguishable from us. That evolution becomes, in effect, a Robo Turing Test: can you tell if it's human.
The matter of transferring your soul may seem germane but really it isn't. Your digital self has no age but your physical self does. The faith in this case is your soul really will exist in your digital self since, in the current context, we believe the soul dies, goes to Heaven, or whatever. In the digital context, it may not and there's no way the Rockhouse can say that definitively but we have no reason to refute it either plus it's bona fide immortality if it's true.
Ed: go ahead and digitize humans because, wtf, there's nothing to lose?
Exactly. There's nothing to lose that you won't lose anyway.
Ed: humans make more humans faster than you can possibly digitize everyone
That brings us to the Part IV aspect since what is the purpose of digitizing everyone. Some or many may not even want it despite the promise of some form of immortality since, regardless of whatever form that digital existence may take, we can be reasonably sure it isn't Heaven.
Ed: what if my soul went to Heaven when my actual body croaked because that would mean my digital self wouldn't have a soul?
That may well be true but it doesn't change anything. That's your expectation right now of Life, the Universe, and Everything so the question coming from it is what if it's really possible your digital self does have a digital soul.
Ed: do androids dream of electric sheep?
Not only that but they will count them, mate. It helps them sleep.
There are two primary chokepoints in the suspension of disbelief since there's the matter of the mechanics of sending a starship to an exoplanet and meeting it with a laser containing encoded digital data. Then there is the acceptance of the idea humans can be digitized to exist externally relative to any corporeal manifestation.
As Paul Delph once sang ... "I Don't Need No Body" which makes a play on a similar thing.
Ref: exceptional Cincinnati musician who headed out to L.A. to play with the Big Dawgs (e.g. John Goodsall).
There's probably more of a choke on the idea of digitizing a human since objections may range from believing it's scientifically impossible to faith reasons which may dictate the soul cannot possibly be cloned or transferred in such a way.
The Rockhouse bases the idea on relentless research into neural networks to discover precisely how the brain accomplishes things. We have high confidence such research will lead to robos which are indistinguishable from us. That evolution becomes, in effect, a Robo Turing Test: can you tell if it's human.
The matter of transferring your soul may seem germane but really it isn't. Your digital self has no age but your physical self does. The faith in this case is your soul really will exist in your digital self since, in the current context, we believe the soul dies, goes to Heaven, or whatever. In the digital context, it may not and there's no way the Rockhouse can say that definitively but we have no reason to refute it either plus it's bona fide immortality if it's true.
Ed: go ahead and digitize humans because, wtf, there's nothing to lose?
Exactly. There's nothing to lose that you won't lose anyway.
Ed: humans make more humans faster than you can possibly digitize everyone
That brings us to the Part IV aspect since what is the purpose of digitizing everyone. Some or many may not even want it despite the promise of some form of immortality since, regardless of whatever form that digital existence may take, we can be reasonably sure it isn't Heaven.
Ed: what if my soul went to Heaven when my actual body croaked because that would mean my digital self wouldn't have a soul?
That may well be true but it doesn't change anything. That's your expectation right now of Life, the Universe, and Everything so the question coming from it is what if it's really possible your digital self does have a digital soul.
Ed: do androids dream of electric sheep?
Not only that but they will count them, mate. It helps them sleep.
4 comments:
I believe that form of transportation was outlined by Billy Graham as one of his views of Heaven. Since you had no body,movement was only limited by thought
When Billy Graham didn't have a problem with the idea conceptually, that looks ok for the faith of it. In this digital clone, everything from this thing needs to wind up in that thing. In a digital sense, that may be the type of soul Billy Grahams means in which it's pure thought unencumbered by bodily matters. This could maybe get tangled around what's a soul but the main thinking is whatever is in the human person better also be in the digital version or it's not a valid clone.
There is no digital version. Unless you encode All your memories and thought processes then program an AI to think like you. Oh it would still just be a computer.
They're actively pursuing duplicating thought processes with the neural network studies. Copying your memories goes beyond that and I don't believe I've seen any research into trying to do it although there's quite a bit to try to understand what memories are, how they work, how they get stored, etc.
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