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RE: “A day in the future”: blind people, now with better vision than you
I don't see how can immortality exist using biological means? Technology will one day make us immortal, in my opinion.
I don't see how can immortality exist using biological means? Technology will one day make us immortal, in my opinion.
You are already an immortal! Well, part of you is, what we call the germ line. Don't you think it's weird that your sperm can make a baby with completely fresh skin, but for some reason your skin gets older and older? Biology has the ability to make us immortal, it just doesn't want to, because using you as a vessel for your genes is a better option for keeping those genes alive, cos they wouldn't be as much resistant to change as you are.
Having said that, immortal organisms probably do exist, such as certain species of seabirds, certain species of medusa, etc.
And we've already been able to make mice in labs that live more than 5 times longer than their normal lifespans.
So, they sometimes say: if it ain't broken don't fix it. Since nature already knows how to do it, maybe we should concentrate on discovering exactly how she does it, instead of going the bionic way. But who knows.
I think every option should be researched.
Besides, using bionic means we could not only reach immortality by not getting old, but we could also develop "backups" of ourselves, so in case something happen to us, we could easily be "reborn", and this will absolutely be impossible by biological means.
I mean, biologically, even if immortality was possible, you could still die if something happened to your body thanks to a natural disaster or something similar. By using bionic means (technology) we could in simple words, have as many clones stored as we want. True immortality thanks to backups.
True. That though brings into it issues of personal identity, which are quite confusing to me.
What if there's two copies of you? Are they both you? I think you could say they're both you, but then at the same time that they're not, in that you wouldn't be able to experience their subjective point of view. I mean, if we make a copy of you now, you won't be able to experience what happens to it, right? If we keep you in separate rooms, and we tickle him, you won't laugh.
So why would we think that, if we make a backup copy of you, and something happens to you, and then we bring back the backup, that that backup is you? For all we know, your subjective stream of consciousness is forever broken at the moment of your death. The person who wakes up, is in many senses you, and it's better him than nothing, but at the same time, you are forever gone.
Yep, if there were 2 copies they would be different, similar at the beginning, but more and more different as time goes by.
And you are also right with the second paragraph, that person wouldn’t be me, but it would be almost like me, and that should be good enough.
Have you watch some black mirror episodes?
Had the series on my to-watch list for ages (literally years!) and just recently started watching them. Only watched the first 3 episodes so far. I like!
That series is one of my favorites man!
There is one episode although I don't remember the season, in which something similar to what we have been talking happen.
I wish I could delete my memory about those episodes so I could delight myself all over again when watching them haha
Yeah I have a strong suspicion it's gonna become one of my favorite series of all time as well.