3 discussion forum and reply each discussion to three classmates
Yiii
discussion2.docThe title of Chapter 4, “Do We Survive Death?”, is a question that has been asked for a long time, and though traditionally, people who have believed that we do survive death have thought something like an immortal soul allows this to occur, recent developments in technology are changing the way we think of surviving death. Though many people remain skeptical, there are those who believe we will someday be able to upload our minds to computers to achieve a kind of digital immortality. [If you have access to Netflix, you should watch episode 4 of Black Mirror from season 3 called “San Junipero”. It’s REALLY good and gives a scenario related to this topic. If you have seen it, feel free to refer to it in this discussion; if you haven’t, sorry for the plot spoilers!]
Before answering the below questions, you should look at the website Digital Immortality Now and skim the article “Digital Immortality and Virtual Humans”.
Would you want to upload your mind to a computer to achieve immortality? Why or why not? [If you have seen the above-mentioned episode of Black Mirror, feel free to refer to how this dilemma is dealt with by the characters in the episode.]
Do you see any drawbacks or ethical concerns related to digital immortality, assuming it becomes reality? If so, describe those in detail. If not, then explain why not.
Works Linked/Cited:
Digital Immortality Now. No date. http://digital-immortality-now.com/Mission. Accessed 15 July 2019.
Savin-Baden, Maggie and David Baden. “Digital Immortality and Virtual Humans.” Postdigital Science and Education, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 87-103.
Reply to the discussion of these three students：
Dante Tamez
RE: Digital Immortality
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As great as immortality sounds, I do not think I would want to upload my mind into a computer. I'd rather keep things natural in regards to my death and within myself. It really is not clear that it ever will happen, and obviously it would be very costly if it happened. It seems confusing and controversial in regards to scanning your brain and being copied onto a computer. I do not think I would want to be stored in a device and have everything uploaded through a computer. For me personally it just does not sound right, it sounds too unnatural and extreme for me. I'm going to bing up something religious in this topic just because it is how I feel and I am sure we will all have our own unique interesting take on this. But for me being a Christian, I want to see God when I die and not be immortal to where I cannot be with him or see him. We were first made initially made to be immortal until the incident of mankind, but now it is made that we die without any sort of immortality. So I guess you could say I do not want to disrupt or abuse it being that way on how it is originally set up that we do die at some point. I have just come to accept it. Like i said, I want it to all be natural the way it is supposed to be. Anyways, I think with the uploads and digital immortality itself is running into a risk and as it is. Who knows if you would survive being copied several times over. It might sound cool sure, but the brain itself is already too complex and the nature of the self and mind is uncertain to even figure out what we would be transferring in the first place! All of the thoughts, memories, fears, hopes and much more would all have to be sent to a computer, so it really is not that simple even as great as it sounds. Without those recorded feelings, we would not be the same person. We already have only a little bit of knowledge of the works of the brain which already is an obstacle itself, so not even knowing what we would transfer at the start means that it cannot be done and runs into high risk and drawbacks. I mean if it really were to exist there would be so much overpopulation and inequality. I do not even know if i could say overpopulation... it would be way more than overpopulation to be honest, since nobody dies. Sounds like a world with a lot of limited space. I think it would be harsh to live in a world without any breathing room at all. I do not see it being worth it and as it is, it won't be achieved anytime soon for a reason.
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Bonnie Enochs
RE: Digital Immortality
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The question “would you want to upload your mind to a computer to achieve immortality?” for me has two different answers. I would and I wouldn’t want to upload my mind to a computer. I would love to live forever and to be able to do everything in life I want. But at the same time I wouldn’t want to live through anymore hurtfulness/pain that life has. Also it has to do with will I be put into a new human body, or live in the computer forever, or a robot. I don’t know if I could handle any of those things. The other only thing I would like is for my memoires to be put into a computer for my future generations of my family. Also how do we know that the computer will last, they can die too, does that mean we die, so is there really immortality by putting my mind into a computer? How does that actually work? So I would have to have a lot of answers before I put my mind into a computer for immortality.
One drawback I have with this is identity theft. They could just tell us that they will give us immortality if we let them take our mind and put it into a computer or are they actually trying to take it and use it for bad. Also does this harm us by doing this because in the digital immortality webpage it says “We will use not only passive recording but a variety of tests for actively extracting information?” Another drawback I have is with this statement “which extracts as much information as possible with the current level of technology.” Does this mean they will only take as much information the technology can handle but what about everything else that makes me, me. So for me there are some things that need to be fixed in order for me to really feel comfortable in putting my mind into a computer for digital immortality.
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Arely Sanchez
RE: Digital Immortality
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Mind-uploading can actually offer something close to true immortality, but ethical concerns related to digital immortality is that is not one hundred percent for sure that the uploaded information can be the exact copy of a person. Some philosopher such as Daniel Dennett, "argued that this would not be a problem and that a copy of a person could not be possibly yield anything than you". But none of that is for sure, if we can upload a whole copy of ourself, how about if only fifty percent of what we really are get to upload and now we might look like a zombie. The real identity of a person can be lost in the process of trying to be immortal. Another problem can be keeping the real identity of a person when new updates are program, people will have to get adjust to new technology and in the min-time part of that person is getting lost and become more like a robot using artificial intelligent. I do see the ethical concerns related to digital immortality when it comes to digital after death, but the reality is that more people are interest in such subject, some people have even cryogenic freezing after death, so they can be part of the future technological world. I wouldn't want to upload my mind to a computer to archive immortality because there is not enough experience to transfer my mind into a computer and even if there was enough experience I don't think I will be brave enough to do such thing.
Work Cited
https://www.google.com/amp/s/aeon.co/amp/ideas/.what-are-the-ethical-consequences-of-immortality-thechnology
Daniel Dennett, "argued that this would not be a problem and that a copy of a person could not be possibly yield anything than you".
Francesca Minerva- Philosophy post doc at Ghent University in Belgium.
Adrian Rorheim Researcher and editor at the Effective Altruism Foundation, Berlin
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