God, Resurrection And Immortality With Technology

[Confused Ape]

I'm putting this topic in the Religion section because it might give some insight into why Christians cling to their religion. It seems that hope for certain promises within the Christian teachings don't always go away when people stop believing and become atheists. My own hope is that atheists in this forum will post what they think of the following ideas. I'm starting with ideas that are held by some Transhumanists.

Transhumanist Spirituality

Although some transhumanists report having religious or spiritual views, they are for the most part atheists, agnostics or secular humanists.[24] Despite the prevailing secular attitude, some transhumanists pursue hopes traditionally espoused by religions, such as "immortality"

Mind Uploading is seen as the way forward here. What I find personally interesting is that there were some transhumanists on another forum I belonged to. They seemed determined to convert me to their world view although there's no advantage in it for me - I'm nearly 63 so I'll be long dead before the technology becomes available, all supposing it ever does.

Whole brain emulation or mind uploading (sometimes called mind transfer) is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device. The computer would have to run a simulation model so faithful to the original that it would behave in essentially the same way as the original brain, or for all practical purposes, indistinguishably.[1] The simulated mind is assumed to be part of a virtual reality simulated world, supported by an anatomic 3D body simulation model. Alternatively, the simulated mind could be assumed to reside in a computer inside (or connected to) a humanoid robot or a biological body, replacing its brain.

There's another aspect of religions which some transhumanists seem to be hoping for.

most thinkers associated with the transhumanist movement focus on the practical goals of using technology to help achieve longer and healthier lives; while speculating that future understanding of neurotheology and the application of neurotechnology will enable humans to gain greater control of altered states of consciousness, which were commonly interpreted as "spiritual experiences", and thus achieve more profound self-knowledge.

I decided to check this out and found The IEET Cyborg Buddha Project

The three of us are launching the IEET Cyborg Buddha Project to combine our efforts and promote discussion of the impact that neuroscience and emerging neurotechnologies will have on happiness, spirituality, cognitive liberty, moral behavior and the exploration of meditational and ecstatic states of mind.

Maybe Cyborg Buddhism will arrive sooner than mind uploading. Should we be scared by the prospect?

Other people seem to hope for resurrection by future technology which is so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic. (One of Arthur Clarke's three laws.) Transhumanist Religion 2 relates to this.

Future magic will permit achieving, by scientific means, most of the promises of religions — and many amazing things that no human religion ever dreamed of. Future God-like beings could resurrect the dead by “copying them to the future.” Perhaps we will be resurrected in virtual reality — and perhaps we are already there.

I sincerely hope we aren't already there.hock:

The above reminds me of Frank J. Tipler's Omega Point.

As the universe becomes smaller, the processing capability becomes larger, due to the decreasing cost of communications as the systems shrink in size.

Tipler's Omega Point occurs when the processing capability effectively becomes infinite, as the processors will be able to simulate every possible future before the universe ends - a state also known as "Aleph".

Within this environment, Tipler imagines that intelligent beings, human personalities, will be run as simulations within the system. As a result, after the Omega Point, humans will have omnipotence, able to see all of history and predict all of the future. Additionally, as all history becomes available, past personalities will be able to run as well. Within the simulation, this appears to be the dead rising. Tipler equates this state with the Christian heaven.

Tipler also identifies the Omega Point with the God who spoke to Moses from a burning bush. From one of Tipler's articles - The Omega Point Theory -

I also argue that the ultimate future state of the universe, the Omega Point, should be identified with God. I have presented my argument in detail in my book The Physics of Immortality, but a main reason for my identification Omega Point = God, comes from Exodus 3:14. In this passage, God is speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. God gives Moses His Name: EHYEH ASHER EHYEH (in Hebrew, of course). God's Name is best translated into English as I SHALL BE WHAT I SHALL BE. In other words, God is telling Moses that His essence is future tense. If we regard God as something Ultimate, then He is telling us that He is the Ultimate Future.

It's difficult to know what Tipler really believes. I found an online version of the Physics Of Immortality and he insisted he was an atheist at the time. After the book was published he put this article on his website - Famous Theologian Defends the Theology of the OPT and his books are available on Christianbook com. He's also regarded as a Christian now so perhaps he converted to his own version of Christianity.