130 replies to this topic

[27GV]

To be fair, I don't think I'd want to be immortal, however I would like the idea of being able to transfer my consciousness into another biological body (genetically engineered for my choice perhaps?) and kind of have a "second life" with another childhood again. Though that is mainly due to personal reasons that kind of negated my childhood somewhat.

I really do like the idea of just a simple biological body that can have organs and parts regrown when needed (nanobots?) rather than some robotic body or enhanced mind.

After that I'd see if I felt fulfilled and that I had lived my life fully - If I had I would take the natural way out, if not, I would like to try the full prosthetic body.

I still am fairly young so hopefully I will see at least something like that in my lifetime.

[Teixeira]

How can anybody know if there is such thing as "to chose a body for immortality"?
When you achieve immortality you don´t chose anything! Because you don´t have anything to do with the process that gives you immortality, so how could you chose anything?
If somebody is talking about technological manipulations to achive immortality, with a "menu" full of options, I´m sorry but that doesn´t exist in the real world. Of course somebody can ask me: how do you know that? Because my posts are not based on speculations, but in hard and experienced reallity. If anybody thinks I have gonne too far, it´s because he don´t know nothing about the reality I´m talking about. And boy, that reallity had gonne too far!!

[Moonbeam]

Cyborg.

P.S. I still don't get how you can be uploaded and have it still be you. If you do the thought experiment where instead of uploading you are copied, then obviously you are you and the copy is the copy. So how does it change anything if you are just uploaded and the original you is gone?

I want to understand that, but I can't. I think that of course we all change over our lives and we are still the same person we were a long time ago even if all them molecules have changed (which they probably all haven't, but some of them obviously have), and so it should be possible. But movies like "The Sixth Day" and that thought experiment keep me from believing it's possible.

P.P.S Nevermind I see there is a thread on the same subject, and I saw a possible answer there.

Edited by Moonbeam, 30 November 2009 - 07:10 PM.

[31stCentury]

How can anybody know if there is such thing as "to chose a body for immortality"?
When you achieve immortality you don´t chose anything! Because you don´t have anything to do with the process that gives you immortality, so how could you chose anything?
If somebody is talking about technological manipulations to achive immortality, with a "menu" full of options, I´m sorry but that doesn´t exist in the real world. Of course somebody can ask me: how do you know that? Because my posts are not based on speculations, but in hard and experienced reallity. If anybody thinks I have gonne too far, it´s because he don´t know nothing about the reality I´m talking about. And boy, that reallity had gonne too far!!

I'm sorry, why are you in this board again (seriously)?

[shawn]

Gattaca, as the body is already amazing, it just has some blockages inherent (like a governer on a carb).
What we do need is the ability to access the faculties which it already has built into it.
Like the perceptual reduction "valve" which seems to be always closed down to the minimum in almost everyone.
To be able to....at will....open it to whatever setting one would like , without chemical or technological help, would be a great step forward.

The eternal Mind......we already have that, but when we reload into a new body we suffer amnesia so as to make the experience of NEW complete.
The Universal (eternal) Mind is also the "real" internet, unfortunately we are all suffering from connection problems for some reason....better get some technicians onto that one.

[Teixeira]

Your menu of options is not complete!!

[Elus]

Full Prosthetics linked to a repository of knowledge.

I will not have to eat. I will not have to sleep. I will not have to breath. I will feel no physical desire. I cannot be destroyed by anyone or anything. I will be forever.

I would have a liquid metal/nanite body, which can reassemble itself into any form. I will be able to fly, harvest energy directly from matter, have incredible strength and reflexes, unlimited intelligence, etc.

I will travel to the farthest reaches of the universe, and continue to learn about the nature of our existence and of the universe.

Of course, I will move from a biological brain to a technology brain in stages:

Individual biological neurons will VERY SLOWLY be replaced by digital/electronic neurons in my brain. This way, my personality will be transferred into the new substrate AND I won't have the philosophical predicament of having to create a copy of my brain. My biological consciousness will transform, slowly, into a digital consciousness.

Edited by Elus Efelier, 06 January 2010 - 02:08 AM.

[SiliconAnimation]

*Deleted*

Edited by SiliconAnimation, 08 January 2010 - 07:21 AM.

[KalaBeth]

Prior to lots of reading here and elsewhere, I'd have said "Gattaca" without hesitation, at least for the foreseeable future.

Now though... some variety of the cyborg/prosthetic model might actually be interesting - provided we're talking about nice squishy biotech and invisibly small nanotech instead of "borg" looking addons, no matter now practical they might be. I've no interest in looking like I walked off a sci-fi movie set, but things like synthetic telepathy, easier learning and retention, consciously controlled fertility (or heck, eye color)... all those sound kind of neat.

Sign me up for the "elf mod" suite I think...

[Cyberbrain]

Prior to lots of reading here and elsewhere, I'd have said "Gattaca" without hesitation, at least for the foreseeable future.

Now though... some variety of the cyborg/prosthetic model might actually be interesting - provided we're talking about nice squishy biotech and invisibly small nanotech instead of "borg" looking addons, no matter now practical they might be. I've no interest in looking like I walked off a sci-fi movie set, but things like synthetic telepathy, easier learning and retention, consciously controlled fertility (or heck, eye color)... all those sound kind of neat.

Sign me up for the "elf mod" suite I think...

A cyborg would look nothing like a borg. It will be a combination of bio- and nanotechnology. It will look and feel like "natural" but will be far more advance.

[The Immortalist]

I think it would be very entertaining to become just a Methuselah when Everyone else is higher than that, I would be an immortal rebel!

I would rather be a purely biological machine than something like full prosthetics or mind uploading, though the biological vessel I'm in wouldn't necessarily be human it could be a biological body that is far above a human body.

[acrossuniv1]

the body of Christ, Jehovah or God.


be a god among men, MuHahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa....

Uh... um dude you sound a bit crazy , especially with that evil laugh. You want to be the Trinity? 3 gods in 1, or is it 1 god in 3? oh shit, split personality!

I want to "ease it in" starting with genetic modifications first, then be cyborg, etc etc, still want the sex though, gotta have the good stuff, after i'm tired with sex drug rock n roll, then it's time to be more philosophical and eternal.

Then, I'd like to be uploaded to a computer, roam all day, eventually maybe become The Eternal Mind, many copies in many computers so as to be invulnerable in case accidentally destroys one, then i'd like to have superpowers , manifest in any form i want and learn and enjoy and find the ultimate purpose of life and universe. be omnipotent, omnipresent, omniverous , all powerful, almighty, god-like but in a good way.


And then i'd like to create something new , maybe a new universe with new heaven, earth, and hell, and populate them with little people dancing around, and i get to watch this little ant-farm grow. I'll split part of me to form some guy called Jesus blah blah let the guy die for all the sins in creation , experience love and compassion, then destroy the ant-farm, build a super-supercomputer that has a program titled: CREATION that supposed created all this, including me , and i will plant virsuses ....

in the program called: BIG.FLOOD and destroy the residents in the virtual world. I'll transfer myself in as Noah and experience the joy of saving the world and carrying on humanity, and I'll work my way up and repopulate the Earth.

Finally I will create a computer program called OBLIVION to end the endless cycles

Program O.B.L.I.V.I.O.N. ... executed. Who knows may get bored now. I really really hope it doesn't come to that, having lived for a gazillion million trillion years and now have to kill everything off including myself. Sad wipe away your tears and say buh bye to everything. The little people dancing around: "buh bye to everything"

Truthfully though, I want to live forever and ever, eternity in heaven or hell or this rocky ball we call earth but it aint gonna last. best choice i can think of : ball of pure spiritual energy, a ring of endless light,

Completely immortal, invulnerable, in-destructable, Transcend the physical , become spiritual

But you forgot to mention all other people, ie all other immortals in your future world! Will they visit you? Will they treat you nice or will they bother you? Maybe in the future we are in seperate eternal forms that will never interact, but other than that then probably we will interact with each other, and I suppose everyone has similar immortal forms and similar physical power. Hopefully immortals will co-exist and treat each other nice...

[harris13.3]

If possible, I'd like to become a Jupiter brain or a Matrioshka brain.

[shifter]

I chose the Gattica option, because I still want to be a human that thinks, feels and learns. Anything past and including the cyborg option and we're no longer who we are. The population would be stagnent, boring and what is there to pursue? Would we still have emotions? Or are they no longer needed in the brave new world. Just a burden and pointless.


None of the options lead to immortality. And the last option eternal mind, subjects you to a relying on your existance to a machine. It could fail, break down, interrupted by solar flares etc.

For immortality, I would like something like in Stargate, where you shed your coporial body and live as energy in another plain of existance with a complete understanding of the universe while still retaining some sort of society and an individual aspect.

[Kolos]

I chose the Gattica option, because I still want to be a human that thinks, feels and learns. Anything past and including the cyborg option and we're no longer who we are. The population would be stagnent, boring and what is there to pursue? Would we still have emotions? Or are they no longer needed in the brave new world. Just a burden and pointless.

If it's bad to don't have emotions we can keep them even if we don't need them anymore to survive.
Anyway I wouldn't want to be a human for all eternity, it would be quite boring and frustrating due to all this limitations.
Even in improved cyborg shapeshifting body I would have been limited by the laws of physics etc.
Virtual Reality gives a lot more options not only to form your "body" but to actually create reality you want exist in of course you can probably use it with normal or slightly changed body but in the long run you wouldn't want to use it anymore if you can so much fun without it.

None of the options lead to immortality. And the last option eternal mind, subjects you to a relying on your existance to a machine. It could fail, break down, interrupted by solar flares etc.

Still much better than weak biological machine that your body is, that wouldn't even survive small nuclear explosion.
Honestly it's not so hard to protect some machine - probably a network of machines so it's not like when you destroy one of them you kill a person just like you don't destroy the internet by breaking one computer, viruses that erase you, change your memory and other malware might be far bigger problem.

[full_circle]

i'd like to periodically switch my gender.

Edited by full_circle, 27 March 2010 - 09:50 AM.

[Denjin]

I'd prefer to stay mostly human, but wouldn't mind a few upgrades like better sense of hearing, etc. I guess this means either the Gattaca option or Cyborg to some degree - either way I'd definitely want to stay mostly flesh and blood. Of course, once all this cool stuff is available and we meet people who have some of these changes, who knows how we'll change what we currently think about it all.

Full Circle's idea reminds me of a book I read a while ago called 'Steel Beach' where people did that periodically just because they got bored.

[Alex Libman]

Why choose? Just make copies of yourself and try everything at least once!

[Teixeira]

There is only one true option and it is not in the poll!
I wonder why...

[Teixeira]

Why choose? Just make copies of yourself and try everything at least once!

Do you think that we are files in a computer? What a strange idea! There are no possible copies of ourselfs!

[Kolos]

Do you think that we are files in a computer?

Not yet but in the future I hope we will, but we don't nececerrily have to copy ourselves to be in many places in the same time because our consciousness wouldn't be limited by (one) body, perhaps it would be more like a water or gas, flowing in the ocean of informations.

[chris w]

Do you think that we are files in a computer?

Not yet but in the future I hope we will, but we don't nececerrily have to copy ourselves to be in many places in the same time because our consciousness wouldn't be limited by (one) body, perhaps it would be more like a water or gas, flowing in the ocean of informations.

I don't know about implications to our mental health, you know, sort of like unprepared mystics going crazy because "they saw God", it might turn out that people would just be going nuts, but maybe we could overcome this somehow, like gradual training or something.

Edited by chris w, 04 May 2010 - 11:50 PM.

[Kolos]

Hallucinogenic drugs, lucid dreaming, meditation could be helpful but I guess you wouldn't have to fully acknowledge what you become if you were not ready, it might be a long process and many people might don't even bother to finish it and use all this new possibilities.

[hypnotoad]

The problem with everything but mind-uploading is that there is still only a single vulnerable version of you. While being a cyborg may allow you to avoid heart disease etc. it wont save you from a fiery plane crash or being crushed in an earthquake or being decapitated in a car wreck or being shot in the face by a mugger etc. We won't truly be free from death until catastrophic accidents are crossed of the list.

I would imagine in a world where cyborgs or rejuvenated people lived for hundreds of years people would become increasingly paranoid and obsessed with avoiding all physical dangers that might end their super-long lives. Once there is no single, central, vulnerable "you" anymore then people's anxieties would likely diminish, in the same way that once I back up my digital files onto 2 separate drives and some DVDs I no longer fear a hard disk crash.

Edited by hypnotoad, 07 June 2010 - 08:38 PM.

[AdamSummerfield]

A cyborg, until I can be certain that my emotions can be transferred into a machine. At that point I would like to become an eternal mind/ nanoswarm.

[Reno]

For the immediate future I want to keep the human form and just edit it. To be immortal just the way I am would be more a curse then a blessing. I'd love to be in good physical health for a change. I'd want to be of average height. I'd also want to augment my cognitive abilities a bit. It would be nice to actually have a decent memory for a change.

I don't want to be a cyborg or anything so artificial. I think it would be more or less like having a prosthesis. I don't want a metal hand or whatever. I wouldn't mind molecular machines in my body repairing problems in real time, and responding to whatever requests I made. There will be a time within the next decade where contact lends based displays will be created allowing a HUD interface viewable only by the user. I imagine with the introduction of artificial eye implants this sort of technology will become mainstream replacing mobile devices.

But, like i said, I just want to have a body which I can be happy in for a change.

Edited by Reno, 26 June 2010 - 08:57 PM.

[BrandonKing]

i would prefer Gattaca because i dont want to transcend humanty and essentially become a God i just dont want to die......ever theres a big difference

[BrandonKing]

the Eternal Mind is the worst one to choose given the choice because lets just say for the sake of argument that EVERY human chose Eternal Mind EXCEPT one and that one hacks into the main computer and gives himself ALL control then forces everyone into robotic bodies they CANNOT control for an army and labor that scenario would be the Ultimate form of Dictatorship and very bad for everyone.

just throwing that out there

[BrandonKing]

The problem with everything but mind-uploading is that there is still only a single vulnerable version of you. While being a cyborg may allow you to avoid heart disease etc. it wont save you from a fiery plane crash or being crushed in an earthquake or being decapitated in a car wreck or being shot in the face by a mugger etc. We won't truly be free from death until catastrophic accidents are crossed of the list.

I would imagine in a world where cyborgs or rejuvenated people lived for hundreds of years people would become increasingly paranoid and obsessed with avoiding all physical dangers that might end their super-long lives. Once there is no single, central, vulnerable "you" anymore then people's anxieties would likely diminish, in the same way that once I back up my digital files onto 2 separate drives and some DVDs I no longer fear a hard disk crash.

the problem with your view is that you would be uploading your mind into a computer and that means your information can still be deleted. so even if you have your mind uploaded to a computer technically you are still "killable"

[Logan]

I chose Gattaca...I would love to have the same body and mind I had at 22. Although, I was at my peak athletically between 27 and 30. I would even take my physical state at 32, but no older than that.

I still don't know why people believe that uploading will be such a great thing. When you upload you are not yourself anymore, you have not extended your life, you have simply made a copy of yourself. This idea is far from optimal IMO.