RE: Let's create an eternal blissful life through science
October 12, 2015 at 1:14 pm
(This post was last modified: October 12, 2015 at 1:44 pm by Pyrrho.)
I do not think it is possible, nor do I think it would be desirable.
First, why I think it is not possible.
Your mind is some processes in your brain, or the result of some processes in your brain. Your brain cannot be kept going forever, so there is zero chance of eternal life. It may be possible to extend human life dramatically, but it cannot be made to last forever.
As for resurrecting people, once the brain deteriorates, there is no way to make it how it was before, as how it was before is not known. If one had a magical scanner that could scan the exact state of every minute particle of a brain, and if one had a magical machine that could exactly arrange such a collection of particles, then it would be possible to recreate a brain at the moment of the scan. (Of course, such a recreation would be a copy of the brain, not the original brain, so it still would not be the original person.) But if no scan had been made of someone, then one would have no way of knowing how all of the particles should be arranged, and so even a magical machine that could arrange particles perfectly would not be enough to resurrect someone.
As for it not being desirable, the only way eternity would not be hell would be if one were high. That is, an altered state of consciousness, not anything like most people's normal lives when they are not taking copious amounts of serious drugs. Being in a drugged state for eternity does not seem to me to be any better than simply ceasing to exist.
So the upshot is, if you were a scientist who could do what you are proposing (which I do not think will ever be possible), I would want to be excluded from the project. Not existing is not a bad thing at all. Not existing is what you were doing in the year 1800, and nothing bad happened to you in the year 1800.
First, why I think it is not possible.
Your mind is some processes in your brain, or the result of some processes in your brain. Your brain cannot be kept going forever, so there is zero chance of eternal life. It may be possible to extend human life dramatically, but it cannot be made to last forever.
As for resurrecting people, once the brain deteriorates, there is no way to make it how it was before, as how it was before is not known. If one had a magical scanner that could scan the exact state of every minute particle of a brain, and if one had a magical machine that could exactly arrange such a collection of particles, then it would be possible to recreate a brain at the moment of the scan. (Of course, such a recreation would be a copy of the brain, not the original brain, so it still would not be the original person.) But if no scan had been made of someone, then one would have no way of knowing how all of the particles should be arranged, and so even a magical machine that could arrange particles perfectly would not be enough to resurrect someone.
As for it not being desirable, the only way eternity would not be hell would be if one were high. That is, an altered state of consciousness, not anything like most people's normal lives when they are not taking copious amounts of serious drugs. Being in a drugged state for eternity does not seem to me to be any better than simply ceasing to exist.
So the upshot is, if you were a scientist who could do what you are proposing (which I do not think will ever be possible), I would want to be excluded from the project. Not existing is not a bad thing at all. Not existing is what you were doing in the year 1800, and nothing bad happened to you in the year 1800.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
