In a Wired interview (11/18/02), leading transhumanist and Google’s director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, spoke about living forever. He was asked: “Will you have your entire body preserved or just your head?”
The usual method of preservation, upon physical death, is freezing. Then, when the technology exists, sometime later, there would be the unfreezing and the reanimation. The dead person would come back to life…
Kurzweil said: “I think there’s some part of our identity and valuable information in our bodies. There’s more in our brains, but there’s some in our bodies as well. It gets into some technical issues. There’s a better way of preserving the brain, which they haven’t been able to do with the whole body yet. The vitrification process, which does a better job of preserving structural integrity in the cells, they do with the head but not with the body. At any rate, I’d go for the grade A plan.”
Kurzweil would apparently have his brain and body preserved, for future reanimation.
There is, of course, an underlying question:
What about consciousness?
Assuming the technology will exist to “bring back” the body and the brain, will the consciousness of being alive exist? Or will the process reinstitute something entirely mechanical?
Mechanical, as in: “The car was sitting in the garage on blocks for 50 years, and then we fixed it and made it start again.”
Biologists and physicists are bothered by the “consciousness question.” When they discuss it, they assume the brain produces consciousness because, well, where else could awareness come from? In other words, they resort to unscientific circular reasoning.
At the same time, they assert that the basis for all matter and energy in the universe is tiny particles; none of those particles have consciousness; and the particles make up the brain; the brain is composed entirely of those non-conscious particles.
This is called a trap. Hard scientists have no reason to assume consciousness exists at all. Yet it does exist. That implies consciousness is coming from somewhere other than the brain, somewhere other than particles—but according to these scientists, that “other somewhere” doesn’t exist.
So they retreat back into “consciousness is in the brain”—even though by their own science, it isn’t.
Preserving body and brain in a state of suspended animation, and then bringing it back, would not, according to a proper reading of their own science, bring back consciousness.
What would come back is some sort of mechanical functioning, and nothing else.
A conscious Ray Kurzweil would never come back.
His body and brain might hum again, like an old car that was fixed, but that’s all.
People continue to argue, of course, that in some very complex way the brain causes consciousness, we just don’t know how yet, but we’re getting there. That’s not evidence. That’s a naked assumption. They may as well be saying the moon is surely made of cheese and one day we’ll prove it, so for now just accept it.
“Well, folks, we just brought back Ray Kurzweil from fifty years of suspended animation. Remember him? He was a futurist at Google, or the CIA, it’s hard to tell which. Apparently the two organizations were one. Anyway, Ray is back.”
“Wonderful. Is he talking?”
“There is brain activity. No talking yet.”
“Is he looking at anything?”
“We assume so. His eyes are open. Also, his hands are opening and closing.”
“Is he gesturing?”
“It’s theoretically possible.”
“Is he conscious?”
“Of course. There is brain activity.”
“Well, there could be brain activity without consciousness.”
“Where did you pick up that idea? Are you crazy? He’s conscious. That’s all there is to it.”
“Maybe there is no ‘he’. There are just electrical signals.”
“Idiot. Life is electrical signals. What else could life be?”
“Life could be conscious, as in ‘hello I’m alive and I’d like to take a walk and look at the clouds and read a book and here’s an interesting passage on page ten, let’s discuss it’.”
“What’s your name again? Guards, take this man to the re-education center. He’s lost his basic programming…”
Ray, your reanimated brain and body aren’t going to bring back conscious-you. (You might reincarnate in a quite different way, but that’s a different story for another time…)
But don’t despair. In the future, when there are 10,000 brains and bodies in a warehouse, and technology allows them to be reactivated, they might, combined, generate enough electricity to run, say, a toaster, a refrigerator, and an oven in a micro apartment in San Francisco.
The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
Leave the left wingers behind and the rest of humanity would probably go along with this. Otherwise a regular lifetime with these inhumans aboard is quite enough thank you. There seems to be enough…evil that outlasts a regular human life span the way it is. This is another pipe dream who’s time hopefully never comes. “Crooked Hillary” and those world wrecking criminals like her who would “live” forever?? I rest my case…
Perhaps this idiot thinks about immortality. ([{They}]) surely think about mortality of the goyim in the meantime using computer technology of guys like Kurzweil to “optimize” the cattle.
Hmmmm. Problem has already been solved. We already do live forever, he just gets to choose between the two places available on the other side of the sod. And consciousness does live outside the body. Life after death experiences show this. These rich folks want to keep on keeping on here when there is something so much better. We are not designed to live forever here. No amount of thinking can outwit the Creator.
IMHO…
I think most people would be satisfied with 80 years of healthy, love filled life in a peaceful world.
Until they see people living to 250 healthier, happier with just as much love. 80 sounds great to us, 35 sounded great to people a few centuries ago.
At what age would people end their lives (bacause that is what one must do first) and go to “preservation” ?
To me it would make sense after 80, maybe 90 🙂
At that age it does not make sense to preserve the body anymore…..
The only thing left is the brain.
Can that be called “life” ?
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We are a new generation of seniors. I’m 75, I ride a motorcycle all year long cept for snow and rain. I play guitar, sing, and write songs. I like to play frisbee, fly Revolution kites, and build stuff in my shop. I like to dance and I can make love once or twice a day. Only medicine I take is a 1/4 grain of Thyroid med. At this point, 85 or 90 seems very possible.
Life is very good. Intellectually I’m as sharp as ever.
The dead man frozen with dry ice in Nederland, Co has the ‘Frozen Dead Guy Days’ some weekend in March.
Near Death Experiences teach us that we already live forever, just on different planes of existence. No need to preserve your broken, aged body on this harsh planet when you move on to a much “better” one provided you were decent on Earth (reincarnation is real as well but that’s a whole different topic).
However, you don’t have to have a Near Death Experience to understand the nature of our immortality, just practice techniques that would allow you to have an Out-of-Body Experience and you will see the truth for yourself. Read some books or check out youtube interviews by “William Buhlman”
Read the books:
“Life after Life – by Raymond Moody”
“Lessons from the Light – by Kenneth Ring”
“The Secret of the Soul – by William Buhlman”
“The Magus of Strovolos – by Kyriacos Markides”
We do not necessarily live forever. If you reject God and neglect your soul, you are doomed.
No way Christina
Atheists have had near death experiences and had wonderful experiences. Ironically, after their near death experiences they were not atheists anymore and were more spiritually inclined, though they did not follow any religion and did not attend church.
There have also been criminals who have had near death experiences and they reported hellish experiences where they were forced to pay for their misdeeds on Earth.
You live forever regardless, but your conditions might not be optimal if you were not decent on Earth (the amount of money you have is irrelevant and is not a form of currency on the next plane).
I highly suggest you read the book “Lessons from the Light – by Kenneth Ring”
Much love
satan’s demons can lie to you as you are unconscious, the are masters of deceit.
I was waiting to see the scientific credentials of the author after such categorical outpourings on their position, but alas it was not to be!
Hey Jon: What is your view on the talmud? I look forward to your future articles on the subject.
Pfft. Some news….the so-called elites have long known how to preserve their consciousness, (complete with memories) on chips and transfer them to clones – either their own or someone else’s. Ask Donald Marshall, who knows first hand.
A classic problem when scientists confuse philosophical materialism with science itself. Materialism is merely a metaphysical assumption and NOT a “discovery” made by science. Theism created science. Theism can restore it.
In Tibetan yoga, a discarnate soul can enter the human body of another person, displace the indwelling soul already there, and take the body, but that is a dark practice. Less extreme versions of that are temporary possession and control of a body by someone doing bi-location or astral projection, or by a discarnate soul temporarily entering the body of someone.
The Lobsang Rampa novels detail a similar process, but one that took place with consent. Several science fiction horror films have dealt with the theme of clones being maintained for the wealthy who occasionally need a spare kidney or heart or whatever.
The possibility exists that cloned adult human bodies could be prepared with the brain being uploaded with a duplicate of the life experiences of the soul of the person intending to transmigrate to the new body, so there will be no conflicting life experiences or personality clashes, though differing mental chemistry might occur, for at least some time, even with a cloned brain in the new or revived body, with the revived brain then being uploaded. Or, with advanced techniques now becoming available, the physical brain of the individual could be transferred into a healthy clone, with full connection to the spinal cord and all motor functions maintained in the clone.
Just maybe, a psychic could help the original soul in a revived body to re-enter it, but that is the only way that would work, as if a body is brought back to life months or years later, the original soul from the body will be somewhere else, incarnate in an astral body on some other plane, or incarnate in another body on the gross physical plane. The brain itself does not contain the soul, so DNA manipulation will not create a conscious being, no matter how hard modern scientists try.
The soul of the person intending such a transfer could prepare for that by learning the astral projection technique, and there are many instances of ‘walk-ins’, and psychic influence by people interacting with the consciousness of other people at a distance by bi-location, astral projection or other siddhis.
Psychics interact with totally discarnate people, and anyone wishing to reenter a body at a later date for instance could be passed over into their company, looked after by them, and then guided back into their original body, and there are some truly amazing psychic techniques being practiced these days that are totally mind-blowing, with new variations on siddhis being invented all the time.
Controlled reincarnation is already a well-known science, as is transfer after this life to any destination one desires. One can read the Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali to learn of many different basic siddhis, or mystic abilities.
Clearly your not that familiar with any kurzweils books or theories, he is definitely not going to live forever or bring his dads consciousness back in digital form as he hopes. He’s however one of the greatest minds in the last century, undoubtably and our merging with tech is not fantasy or a transhuman fetish it is evolution. Doesn’t mean u have to want or accept it but most people already spend most of there life in a screen, the difference of a neural lace is arbitrary and will only increase our output abilities. No one has proposed freezing brains or bodies, that’s completely devoid of the current argument.
“our merging with tech is not fantasy or a transhuman fetish”, no it is much worse than that, It is the greatest deception satan ever fostered.
Satan? That’s your pitch. You shouldn’t be using the Internet by your definition it is evil in itself you should get off-line now or you will burn.
The internet is not evil. It is not alive. Mankind can be evil. We are alive, and can make choices…good and bad….