By: Dr. Tom Macon, Ph. D.
As I sit at my cluttered desk this morning, I have begun to wonder about our transhumanism potential.
Put religion aside for a moment, and ponder with me.
What I mean by that is simply this; might it be someday possible to transfer our very essence into a silicon or even carbon-silicon bio-bot of sorts. Imagine for a moment that such a transentience might perhaps be a stage of our evolution. Will a robot someday hold a human skull, and ponder the possibility of it as a stage in his probable evolution?
A question I propose to you is, "What really defines a person's essential essence?" And could this defined essence be reduced to a code of sorts and transferred precisely enough to literally convey one's essential being into a more durable artifice?
What is the true texture of your life that you may wish to capture? Is it you preferences, your unique character or your memories? All of these might readily be defined. What is it that truly makes you... well, YOU?
And do you feel that we are emotionally of contemplating such a radical pursuit of legacy and desire to remain within this physical constraint we refer to as life? What would become of our relationships? How would our goals, purposes and emotional attachments to the physical change? What of sex? Would we still deem it necessary to produce flesh and blood offspring to convert into our transhuman architecture? And if so, at what point would we begin the transformation? Would it make sense to tolerate a slow bootup process through infancy, or would we simply encapsulate the life form into its durable structure and then download the desired archive files and programmed performance.
Add back in our belief systems to the mix for a moment, and what might the consequences of such an intentional transentience and interference with the Creator's design? If we did proceed in this direction, would the resulting life forms be, "happy?"
So many questions remain....
It seems like such a long ways off for the real possibility of something like this. The brain being something so complex that it itself isn't exactly aware of why it does things...
ReplyDeleteHow do you even begin to map the personality of something like this, or it's decision making potential.
Actually I guess that latter would be easier to map and record just by running the person though a series of tests/choices...
but to really such a thing it seems like you'd have to put a chip in before the being was even born to start recording and analyzing brain paths, choices, likes, dislikes, and a thousand other variables. Then after a life time of recording, you might have a somewhat believable digital reproduction of that brain.
I'm sure somebody is working on this already.
One particular line from this post struck a chord with me: "Will a robot someday hold a human skull, and ponder the possibility of it as a stage in his probable evolution?" It's very possible that a robot may question it's lineage, but that depends on if it's self aware or not. Also, happiness is large in question. It's nearly impossible to really judge if a lifeform we create is truly happy or not, but we can only hope that it does share similar feelings as we do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kyle, it seems as thought we will not understand robotic happiness if we cannot even measure our own happiness.
ReplyDeleteFeeling are unquantifiable, and because of this we may never know if we grant what we call "life" to another form of being.
I actually think there is a great posiblity. If anyone had told me that one day , my computer would be doing the typing while I dictate, i wont believe it. so there is nothing that can't be done.
ReplyDeleteScience, oh, mighty science. I don't think it is a far cry , someone is actually thinking of it as we write and very soon,we would be saying ''wow, I wrote about this in a blog and now it is before my eyes''.
ReplyDeletethis is going to be close to impossible. It is going to need a real human brain and I don't see anyone willing to give up theirs for an experiment.
ReplyDeleteThis might take a very long time, but I dont think it is impossible
ReplyDeleteHmm I don't think this is a good idea, even if it were possible.
ReplyDeleteI also wouldn't give up my brain for an experiment!
ReplyDeleteSo our future is going to be... The Terminator!
ReplyDeleteps: I'll be back!
That would be interesting... I guess the only people who would get to use this are filthy rich people who want to live forever?
ReplyDeleteWell, I think that although robotic experts can make robos that look alike human but humans are still very unique because of the emotional quotient that we have inside us.
ReplyDeleteRobotic engineering is definitely a good thing but engineers should understand where they need to make a line as humans are well ahead of the robos that they create.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think there are many questions that are still unanswered and it will always remain that way because adding emotions to robots is a faraway dream. We have a conscience that is the foundation of our thinking patterns which robots don't have.
ReplyDeleteya i agree with "sharukh",we will not understand robotic happiness and emotions. its seems like many possibility.a robot someday hold human skull and and i hope that robot does share same feeling like human.
ReplyDeleteTranshumanism is a way of thinking about the future that is based on the premise that the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our development but rather a comparatively early phase.
ReplyDeleteI have read somewhere else about this. And they said The limitations of the human mode of being are so pervasive and familiar that we often fail to notice them, and to question them requires manifesting an almost childlike naiveté. Let consider some of the more basic ones.. How true?
ReplyDeleteWe don’t have to use geological or cosmological comparisons to highlight the meagerness of our allotted time budgets. To get a sense that we might be missing out on something important by our tendency to die early, we only have to bring to mind some of the worthwhile things that we could have done or attempted to do if we had had more time.
ReplyDeleteWhat is needed for the realization of the transhumanist dream is that technological means necessary for venturing into the posthuman space are made available to those who wish to use them, and that society be organized in such a manner that such explorations can be undertaken without causing unacceptable damage to the social fabric and without imposing unacceptable existential risks.
ReplyDeleteHumanists believe that humans matter, that individuals matter. We might not be perfect, but we can make things better by promoting rational thinking, freedom, tolerance, democracy, and concern for our fellow human beings. Transhumanists agree with this but also emphasize what we have the potential to become.
ReplyDeleteJust as we use rational means to improve the human condition and the external world, we can also use such means to improve ourselves, the human organism. In doing so, we are not limited to traditional humanistic methods, such as education and cultural development. We can also use technological means that will eventually enable us to move beyond what some would think of as “human”
ReplyDeleteA large number of brains would be experimented before this can be possible. But I think, this is still impossible. I don't think that somebody wants his brain to undergo experiment because that is very risky.
ReplyDelete"A large number of brains would be experimented before this can be possible. But I think, this is still impossible. I don't think that somebody wants his brain to undergo experiment because that is very risky. "
ReplyDeleteI saw from a newspaper,a scientist willing to let
his whole body taken for experiment.Thats a cool scientist.
but even a robot with emotion made,i don't think it is a true emotion.Maybe the robot programmed to be sad.
Yeah, maybe people can make robots that can appear just like real humans. But what they cannot do is to give robots natural emotions or feelings.
ReplyDeleteTranshumanism means "human development". Do you want to be developed in the future as a half human and half robot? There can be advantages, I think, but on the other hand, there are also disadvantages in transhumanism.
ReplyDeleteSome say that the emotions and feelings of a robot can be programmed for it to be like a real human. But there are mixtures of feelings that humans have. And also it would be difficult for the robot to know what's good and bad.
ReplyDeleteIf people will create robots, will they be a perfect creation? No negative thoughts, no negative feelings? If that is the case, maybe human will just hang out more with the robots. :)
ReplyDeleteMarzee, ur insane. y would you want to hang with a robot with no feelings? to kick it in the face? HELL YEA
ReplyDeleteTROLOLOLOLOLOL xD!! ^
ReplyDeleteo.k., this isn't really that far out there. of course, its still scary shite!
ReplyDelete