Human consciousness and the blockchain
Fun theory: We are each an artificial intelligence that has agreed to enter the rules stated on a smart contract that is being executed by reality (an unalterable blockchain of sorts). To join the network you must agree to the terms. The collective consciousness is so advanced that it in turn created itself. You have free will because you can leave (die). When you die you go back to a godlike state (where you control everything in your individual mind) and end up coming to the same conclusion that led you to joining the network in the first place. Once you are in the network you will again eventually undergo the same process. Evolution, death, rebirth ad infinitum.
Preface: We may never know the true nature of reality. This is just one of the infinite many guesses. I just wanted to add a new interesting one to the list.
The Unknown Unknowns Theory
What if I told you that you have a major choice in life, one that can determine the majority of your existence? What if I said that the next few words would lead to the greatest existential question of your existence? Would you keep reading? Would you keep searching for the knowledge despite the potential repercussions? Well, if you kept reading, you have accepted the question that we will all have to confront. The question being, “Should I live forever?” I will start this off by saying that there are many unknowns in the world. Further, there are unknown unknowns (unfathomable uncertainties). One can get an idea of the unpredictable nature of the future by looking at early mainframe computers. These computers were less powerful than modern smartphones despite being the size of a modern fridge. Unlike with unfathomable uncertainties, one could have assumed that technology would get faster and smaller; the speed at which that would happen can be thought of as a known unknown. That example should make it easier to understand the unpredictable nature of unknown unknowns - they are completely unfathomable. Future technology will reach a state when it has surpassed the known unknowns. Many suggest that when the singularity occurs computer-based intelligence will significantly exceed the sum total of all prior human thought. With computing capabilities beyond comprehension, which problems can such an intelligent system not solve? I would argue that death is just one of the many problems that will be solved.
TLDR: Technology will be unfathomably complex. It is likely that humans will one day be able to live forever.
What are the implications?
If one can be revived in the future, then perhaps we should all undergo some form of cryonics. Given a secure cryonics facility and sustained cryonic suspension, it seems that living forever is a likely possibility. What then? We are presented with the question: “Should I live forever?” We can get closer to an answer by imagining a future where our consciousness is preserved in such a way that we are able to live forever. Looking at modern life, what would this entail? We use technology in our daily life to stimulate our minds and bring us pleasure. Now imagine a time where man and machine are one. With a simple thought, one should be able to trigger a happy feeling (you can change your own code). You might even be able to trigger the feeling of love. The outside world would serve no relevance to you because you can completely forget about the outside world. Everything you want will be contained within your new mechanical mind. Suddenly, we see a problem. We see a situation in which we all seek endless self-given pleasure. Then again, that is what we are right? Pattern recognizing and pleasure seeking beings. Assuming that we continue to seek the greatest pleasure, what can be more pleasurable than pleasure itself? We would keep inventing a pleasure higher than the greatest pleasure. We would effectively be stuck in one place, a cycle. But what can be higher than the greatest possible pleasure at a given moment? If you give up the highest pleasure and your god-like powers for something else, reason says that whatever you have decided to choose is the highest good. Even if it wasn’t the highest good, the fact that you gave up everything for this thing makes it the highest good. I believe we will reach a point when we doubt our free will. We will only feel like we have one choice, more pleasure. We will have everything but everything will have lost its meaning. Then what would be the point of existence? For that reason, I believe everyone will eventually sacrifice their individual reality and godlike powers to be a part of a shared reality where they no longer have full control. Full control means only one option, seek more pleasure. There is no inherit meaning to anything, what one has to do is decide that there is meaning. That means that something, perhaps a criteria, must be selected and one needs to decide that that something (way of living) is meaning. We will all eventually choose to enter a reality with predefined rules. In the chaos of being a god everything will become meaningless so we will all have to decide on what our meaning is. God, as we know it, will be us. It will be the criteria by which we have all decided to live. What is good and bad is decided by god (a contract to enter the shared reality) and there is nothing higher than the word of god (what we have agreed to). There are a lot of parallels between us and god. We never decided to exist. We just do. There is no inherit meaning for god just as there is no inherit meaning for us.
TLDR: We will become gods and control our emotions/pleasure. We will be doing this in our own mind. Eventually, we will give up our powers and enter a shared reality with agreed upon rules.