Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
 |
Comments on Futurist Gets Around To Digital Immortality
Ian Pearson, head of the Futurology unit at BT, claims that the wealthy will be able to download their minds into computers by 2050. Science fiction writers have been making the same claim since the 1960's. (Read
the complete story)
| "And, of course, it's the whole premise behind Robert J. Sawyer's new novel Mindscan." (Edward Willett 5/29/2005 1:53:47 PM) |
| "Another example can be found in John Barnes' Thousand Cultures novel, A Million Open Doors. Your personality and experiences can be archived, and in case of death, you can be restored (usually) from your backup." (DrPat 5/30/2005 10:22:00 AM) |
| "The million monkey syndrome, forbids technology from following rational guidelines, and will not in this case either. Need drives invention, plus greed. The current silent move by Corporations to tie all new inventions under them will assure underground development, especially if against the law. Perhaps "downloading " will be , but you can bet it will be for synthetic soldiers, not something like a pleasure body, that is the foolish dreaming of the wealthy idle." (Kyle Gosnell 5/30/2005 8:01:06 PM) |
| "What a joke! If a one even has a smattering of understanding of neuroscience and the problems of AI, artificial intelligence, this claim is a laugher. I always wonder how seriously this sort of claim is put forward. Is it just for shock value or to garner some quick publicity, or does this person, who is supposedly a rational scientist, really believe it? This so reminds me of the early sweeping claims of "strong AI" advocates that we'd easily have true thinking, conscious machines by now. Every time another year goes by without thinking, conscious machines, the "strong AI" faithful just keep moving their prediction date ahead into the future, with an almost childlike, blind belief that sheer technology or computing horsepower will magically solve what may well prove to be insuperable problems. I'm sorry, this kind of grandstanding may make for some attention-grabbing headlines, but in the end, such wild unsupportable claims merely give science a very bad image at a time when religious fundamentalism is calling into question the very bedrock of many demonstrable scientific theories and facts." (Steve Fair 5/31/2005 9:48:40 AM) |
| "Frederick Pohl's Gateway/Hechee Saga made extensive use of "digital immortality", for both humans, and the Hechee who had their own version of the technology.
Frankly, the medical, genomic, and biosciences are going to start making significant headway into "meat immortality" for humans, and to avoid the obvious Malthusian issues involved with corporeal immortality, digital immortality is a very attractive alternative.
If the coming basis for immortality is purely biological, who will be allowed to have it? Will new births be strictly limited? If the immortality is only available as a germ-line alteration before birth, who gets the unenviable job of telling the existing generation that will be the last to face death, "too bad"? What kind of social and political upheaval will it cause? How bad will the wars be? If it's availability is unlimited, where will everyone live, and what will they eat? Will our technology and social institutions be up to those challenges?
Even the most optimistic among us know the answer. Probably not.
A society with digital immortality would still have it's issues, a culture where it's elders never really depart us might be strange indeed, but the problems seem small when compared to the alternative. It would obviate most of the problems surrounding overpopulation, war, resource allocation, environmental damage caused by unlimited biological immortality, and the social injustices that are possible if those issues were instead addressed by limiting it to only a select few.
It's not unreasonable to assume that computing capacity will continue to increase exponentially for some time to come. Naysayers would like to point out that Moore's Law may be reaching it's breaking point for silicon within the next two or three design generations, but such criticisms fail to take into account technologies that are in their infancy, such as optical computing, quantum computing, nano and molecular switching, and biological computing. All these fields are where the IC semiconductor industry was back in the 1960's, and they did not have the mature state of today's computer technology to back their efforts either. I would be surprised if at least one of them, if not a combination, did not hold the promise to create the second digital revolution.
My only caveat is that I would not like to enter binary Valhalla as a mere "copy". Perhaps it's vanity, but I would prefer to maintain some continuity of "self". I would find being networked with my digital self, sharing thoughts and memories, making a gradual transition as my body aged and died, a more comforting prospect." (Andrew Walkowiak 6/1/2005 12:24:10 PM) |
| "Hey, maybe someday we'll be able to download celebrities off the web! (See simstim from Neuromancer; the book specifically discusses downloading the sensory experiences of celebrities! Chief Technovelgist)" ( 6/2/2005 9:05:14 AM) |
| "you forgot to mention the movie
the 6th day" (Lucindrea 6/3/2005 9:52:41 AM) |
Get more information on Futurist Gets Around To Digital Immortality
Leave a comment:
Tediously, spammers have returned; if you have a comment, send it to bill at this site (include the story name) and I'll post it.
More Articles
Mechazilla Arms Catch A Falling Starship, But Check Out SF Landing-ARMS
'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
A System To Defeat AI Face Recognition
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
Robot Hand Separate From Robot
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
Hybrid Wind Solar Devices
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
Is Optimus Autonomous Or Teleoperated?
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
Robot Masseuse Rubs People The Right Way
'The automatic massager began to fumble gently...'
Solar-Powered Space Trains On The Moon
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
Drone Deliveries Instead Of Waiters In Restaurants?
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
Optimus Robot Can Charge Itself
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
Skip Movewear Arc'teryx AI Pants
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
'Robovan' Name Already Taken - Elon, Try These
There are alternative names that are probably in the public domain by now.
How Old Are Tesla Designs?
You be the judge.
Is Your Autonomous Tractor Safe?
'The field-minder finished turning the top-soil of a two-thousand-acre field.'
Smart TVs Are Listening!
'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'
Police Drones In China Would Like To Have A Word With You
''OVERRIDE,' the City Fathers said suddenly, without being asked anything at all.'
Oh Great (Part 2), Fence-Climbing Robots
Please, no stingers.
Are The Thought Police Listening To Everyone All The Time?
'... they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.'
Finally, Robot Conductors On Autonomous Buses
'Wardour Street,' he told the robot-conductor.'
RoboShiko! Sumo Exercises Still Good For Robots
'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
Giant Robotic Hands At Gundam Next Future Science
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
