Is immortality possible? Can science put an end to death?
Jason Silva seems certain that the answer is yes. Looking ahead for a moment...let's say we get there. Envision a place where consciousness is re-engineered without the turmoil of the mortal coil...
But will we ever truly be immune to hazard, even if the singularity is reached?
One line grabbed me particularly:
"Imagination," Silva says, "allows us to think beyond our limitations to conceive of what might be and go further than we ever thought possible."
I invited him to become a member of the Imagination Age Network in Loveland, an experiment in Detroit created by Jerry Paffendorf. Loveland explores new concepts about community and the micro-ownership of shared real estate. Loveland is 1,000,000 square inches in all, made up of individual colonies. The first colony, Plymouth, is 10,000 square inches and has 588 "inchvestors." The Imagination Age Network is a 1000-inch neighborhood in Plymouth. Our goal is to see how big we can make an inch.
The yellow rectangle is the Imagination Age Network in Plymouth, shown amid the parcels of 588 other inchvestors. For more information about Loveland, click here. Jason Silva's inch is called "Turning Into Gods." He chose the address "Intentions: 128" for his project. The Imagination Age network is divided into eight shared zones of 122 inches each. Intentions, the second zone, includes inches 123-245.
The first step in growing Jason's project is to watch the video below and leave comments on this blog post with your thoughts on possibility, science and technology, a grand unfolding instigated by humans, and, oh yeah, "making ourselves permanent."
TURNING INTO GODS - 'Concept Teaser' from
jason silva on Vimeo.
8 comments:
An interesting interview, thanks for posting.
I recorded a bit about immortality in an audioboo here: http://audioboo.fm/boos/123283-immortality-the-singularity-is-weird
Please note: its late and I'm almost in a carbohydrate coma, so I'm less eloquent than I'd like to be. :)
jason, welcome to detroit and the loveland project, man. you're in good hands with rita (and all of us, if i do say so :)). i love where you're going with your documentary. with similar interests, i went to the university of houston for an ms in studies of the future. i'd love to catch up with you about it, and know a bunch of people you should be interviewing. in particular check out john smart from http://accelerating.org where i used to work and am still on the board. he's one of the best. i'm 908-343-1981 any time if you want to catch up, or jerry[at]makeloveland[dot]com.
rock on! see you in the d, <3
jerry
Of course, in many beliefs, we are already immortal; dependent on your view, either you live and then are rewarded or punished, or you live, die, and live again.
For me, this is such linear thinking. In a quantum world, time direction is not relevant. An anti-proton is the exact opposite of a proton - including direction in time. A vacuum fluctuation is seen by us as an event, which emits two particles - actually, a particle and an anti-particle. This is followed by a second event, where these items annihilate themselves.
Outside of the time stream illusion, there are two events, one which expels a particle, which moves forward in time, and one of which expels an anti-particle, which moves backwards. These are separated by this dimension of time, but in reality, it is happening all at once.
To me, therefore, the question is less CAN it happen and more have we already DONE this? If we have done this - if the Singularity has occurred in our apparent future, what would the ripples moving "backwards" from that look like to us. And how could we benefit or bootstrap from these ripples?
I don't believe individual people are immortal, or can achieve immortality...
Yet ;)
With that in mind, here are my thoughts on immortality:
http://davemosher.com/blog/2010/on-immortality/
Where do you see the aging process in the future world of immortality? Does it slow down so that we can enjoy our time forever in peak 30 something year old condition or do we just go on forever growing older?
Immortality is alluring but, if it were to transition from science fiction to science fact, would catalyze the dystopian futures that writers like Asimov, Brin and Heinlein have explored for decades. Would every human be given the opportunity to live forever? If so, would that mean we would necessarily have to stop procreating, to avoid overpopulating our fragile blue marble of a world? Should such a breakthrough occur, would it only be available to citizens of certain countries or classes. Rejuvenation treatments and therapies in the present already show a pharmaceutical divide between those who can afford to tweak their biochemistry with compounds built for an individual genetic blueprint.
In some ways, providing longevity to many of the most productive amongst us could be incredibly meaningful to humanity: what would it mean if a Da Vinci, Einstein or Edison could continue to create and contribute beyond the brief, fleeting span we are alotted? But once such technology is within our grasp, who will be the arbiter of access to it, or the auditor of the privilege to keep living, once gifted? Could we stomach living forever when those we love most grow old and die next to us?
To work in a pop reference, that's precisely the issue that Connor MacLeod had to face. If we took advantage of the opportunity to live forever, would we necessarily be forced to deprive our descendants of full access to resources? Or to send them to colonies, should Earth become a gerontocracy?
Fun questions to ponder.
@digiphile, we share many of the same concerns.
Since cultural ecosystems arise from existing ecosystems, I wonder what kind of human values would endure in this environment, particularly when bodies are no longer necessary, though the illusion of them might be, the same way avatars in virtual environments tend to live in "houses" though there's no rain or reason for walls.
Also, the fight against hazard will never end, and I can't envision a scenario in which a sentient species that has reached the singularity ever forgets that.
As with the emergence of new cultural ecosystems, a transition period will be required during which time consciousness and machines are irrevocably tied just as human beings are currently tied to physical bodies. Machines can be destroyed.
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