How could it be explained?
First of all I have to object to the term 'afterlife'. Because if, after the death of your body you find yourself aware, with your consciousness, memory and personality still intact you are clearly still alive, at least in some form or another.
Ok then, grumble over.
What has always fascinated me is not the question "Is there life after death?" as this is obviously a simple yes or no thing but instead, if there actually is then how can it be explained? What mechanisms could be in play to allow such a thing to happen and what does that say about the way we perceive what we think of as reality?
Big IF I know but it's fun to think about, well it is for me anyway :S
I think the most common idea that I hear is that life is like a dream and that when we die, we simply wake up somewhere else. This is probably what I thought as a child until I stumbled onto the next mad idea.
But now technology has grown so quickly and with research being carried out in the realm of quantum computing it is not too difficult to imagine a future where entire 'virtual' worlds can be created that, to the person immersed in them, are indistinguishable to the 'real' thing. What if this universe in which we live, including its 13.7 billion years of cause and effect is just that, but on a scale and level of complexity that we cannot imagine? And further imagine that all of us, i.e. people who currently live in this universe are just in some way 'plugged in' just as our future selves may plug ourselves into some virtual world running on a quantum computer.
Now, I'm not in anyway saying that this is something I actually believe to be true but I have always found the speculation fascinating.
The question is then, if it were somehow proved that you did indeed survive the death of your body what theories could you come up with to explain it?
It's a thought experiment thing....
First of all I have to object to the term 'afterlife'. Because if, after the death of your body you find yourself aware, with your consciousness, memory and personality still intact you are clearly still alive, at least in some form or another.
Ok then, grumble over.
What has always fascinated me is not the question "Is there life after death?" as this is obviously a simple yes or no thing but instead, if there actually is then how can it be explained? What mechanisms could be in play to allow such a thing to happen and what does that say about the way we perceive what we think of as reality?
Big IF I know but it's fun to think about, well it is for me anyway :S
I think the most common idea that I hear is that life is like a dream and that when we die, we simply wake up somewhere else. This is probably what I thought as a child until I stumbled onto the next mad idea.
But now technology has grown so quickly and with research being carried out in the realm of quantum computing it is not too difficult to imagine a future where entire 'virtual' worlds can be created that, to the person immersed in them, are indistinguishable to the 'real' thing. What if this universe in which we live, including its 13.7 billion years of cause and effect is just that, but on a scale and level of complexity that we cannot imagine? And further imagine that all of us, i.e. people who currently live in this universe are just in some way 'plugged in' just as our future selves may plug ourselves into some virtual world running on a quantum computer.
Now, I'm not in anyway saying that this is something I actually believe to be true but I have always found the speculation fascinating.
The question is then, if it were somehow proved that you did indeed survive the death of your body what theories could you come up with to explain it?
It's a thought experiment thing....
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