Wednesday, April 6, 2011

You don't have to believe in a higher power to live forever

Via the Guardian.uk:
John Gray argues often – most recently in conversation with Giles Fraser – that modern secular thought is tied to models inherited from our religious forerunners, and from Judeo-Christian thinking in particular. Thus modern history understands itself as the story of teleological development, or progress. Thus science replicates the Judeo-Christian in its attempt to free us from our mortal bodies, albeit not by salvation so much as escape from our destiny.

the idea of mortality as the ultimate limitation is not found in all parts of the nonreligious population. Gray does acknowledge that the nonreligious can perceive continuity in what they pass on to their children. This is true and does not deserve to be treated with quite such short shrift. But in addition, my research with nonreligious people in the UK shows that there are also those who take a less self-and human-centred view of the world. Even for the rationalists that Gray focuses on, continuity can be associated with the acquisition of common knowledge – to which the person might hope to contribute in their lives. The Judeo-Christian teleological framework is, perhaps, clearly visible here.

For yet others, however, continuity comes from a material connection with the world, one which does continue after death. For this group, Darwin's making "humans into animals like any other" is not so terrible a prospect, nor is living or dying on an uncaring Earth. Indeed, the fact that all this living and dying occurs regardless of anyone particularly caring can be a source of great wonderment and delight to people of this persuasion.

Dr Abby Day of the University of Sussex has shown that nonreligious people do often claim to have met with deceased friends and relatives. But the nonreligious encounter this life after death in a different way from the religious. The difference is that, unlike the religious and spiritual people she talked with, the nonreligious do not attribute any agency or opinions to these beings; rather, they just accept their presence.

Day has coined the term "secular supernatural" to describe the phenomenon. What is interesting is how unremarkable the people she talked with found such experiences: it does not seem to upset their whole nonreligious outlook. On the contrary, it seems to be a part of it. Thus Gray is quite correct to emphasise the things the overlaps between religion and nonreligion that are lost from more naive accounts of both; but there are subtle differences that his bleak and blanket view miss out on too. The nonreligious, like the religious, accept and reject different types of and vehicles for immortality; like religious people, the nonreligious desire and deny the prospect of immortality at the same time.

It is interesting that the research referenced in the Guardian's article pointed out one doesn't need to believe in a higher power in order to accept that there is a supernatural reality that permeates our world. Perhaps it is because of an enlightening of the general public or could it be that our understanding of such matters is more permeable than before because our lives are more abstract than they have been in the past.

Or have we allowed ourselves as a people to become fooled into blindly accepting the inexplicable, reluctant to explore the mysteries of the unexplained by those who wish to remain hidden?

There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend.

Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:

Demand Sam Bailey

Sunday, March 6, 2011

'Singularity' Movement Seeks Human Immortality

Via SalemNews

During the first decade of the 21st Century the drive to achieve human immortality has picked up steam.

Some see the achievement of immortality by 2050 at the latest. A number of ideas now exist concerning bridging the gap between a finite lifespan and one with a trajectory that never ends.

Various age researchers believe the key is in DNA and its markers. Others are concentrating their research efforts in techniques that will regenerate human cells forever without loss of critical biological information.

Still others see silicon and steel as the way to never die…uploading the brain into a virtual world where human thought and personality survives forever.

A few have a twist on the latter idea: they want to
upload the mind and then download it again in a new body, either human or android.

TIME magazine recently featured a cover story that shook many people up, "2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal."

Now the formal recognition of a movement towards immortality has arrived. The movement has been in existence for decades, but has never had a name. TIME staff and editors have christened the proponents of life everlasting as the "Singularitists."

TIME's definition of singularity is: “The moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound, it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.”
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One of the current outspoken spokesmen of the Singularity Movement is Raymond Kurzweil. TIME's article centered around him.

The grand vision encompasses a complete, irreversible transformation of humans. When the transition occurs, he proclaims, it will herald the end of the human race as we know it.

Lev Grossman, who wrote the article for TIME writes about the transition period:

"When that [the achievement of super-powered artificial intelligence] happens, humanity—our bodies, our minds, our civilization—will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He [Raymond Kurzweil] believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away."

Sounds impressive, but what does that really mean for the future of Mankind, its revered institutions, politics, cultures, and economics?
The Singularity Movement has been gaining more popularity and exposure in the press, perhaps this is as it should be as they are a movement devoted to realizing the future of humanity now and as a race we are quickly approaching a realm of trans-reality where the line between science fiction and reality becomes blurred.

As a new generation approaches old age, the limits of technology are being challenged to wring out a few more years in ways never before dreamed of. Will our consciousness be transplanted into an indestructible form that only requires fresh memory chips, oil and a bit of polish or will we radically change the chemical makeup of our bodies, becoming something more than human?

Will future generations inherit access to infinity?

There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend.

Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:

Demand Sam Bailey

Friday, March 4, 2011

Ray Kurzweil and the question of artificial immortality

Via Business Week:

Charlie Rose Talks to Ray Kurzweil

The author, inventor, and futurist says accelerating technology will soon bring us immortality—and all the energy the earth requires

I'm interested in this notion of a coming singularity—computers surpassing humans—and your obsession with immortality. What led you there?
I really started with this exploration of where technology is headed and the tremendous power of exponential growth. So where radical life extension comes from is the observation that biology is a set of software processes. We have software running in our bodies. It's out of date. It evolved thousands of years ago. Our approach so far to health and medicine has been hit-or-miss. We find treatments accidentally. Here's something that lowers blood pressure. We don't know why it works. Now we're actually gaining access to that software, understanding how it works. These technologies will double in power every year. They'll be 1,000 times more powerful in 10 years, a million times more powerful in 20 years. What I'm looking forward to is the tipping point where we're adding more time than is going by in terms of life expectancy. The sands of time will start running in rather than running out within a couple decades.

What about this idea of humans merging with technology?
There are already people putting computers in their bodies and brains. Parkinson's patients, deaf people with cochlear implants, computerized pancreases. Ultimately we'll do it non-invasively because another exponential progression is that they're getting smaller and smaller. You know, this [holding up a smartphone] was the size of a building when I was a student. And it will be the size of a blood cell one day—and much more powerful. We'll be able to send very powerful devices into our bodies that will keep us healthy, extend our thinking. This might as well be in my body and brain because it's part of who I am.
Where does the human experience begin and end? Is it unrealistic to assume that our current form is the ultimate end of a human being or will our technology become more of a part of our identity as time progresses?

A modern seer and futurist, Kurzweil has been on the money in the past regarding the uses of technology. If cybernetic implants are becoming more common and an expected part of growing old, how will it impact our sense of existence?

There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend.

Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:

Demand Sam Bailey

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Via ComicsAlliance:



Because teachers are the real heroes, the Smithsonian Channel has launched a new series spotlighting some of the world's greatest scientists and their fascinating work. The hook? They're all women -- superheroines of discovery and exploration. In support of Women in Science, Smithsonian Channel commissioned five short webcomics starring the esteemed subjects of the series, which include such tantalizing titles as "Decoding Immortality," "Batwomen of Panama," and "Ghost Cat."



Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/02/smithsonian-women-of-science-comics-video/#ixzz1Fa29jvyj http://amplify.com/u/bsp2d

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Watson and mankind's path to immortality

Via SilconIndia.com:

IBM's super computer Watson, named after its founder Thomas J. Watson, has won the IBM Jeopardy Challenge defeating Jeopardy champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter which represents a milestone in the development of artificial intelligence. The supercomputer is one of the most advanced systems on earth and was programmed by 25 IBM scientists over the last four years. The creators scanned some 200 million pages of content that is equivalent of about one million books into the system. The system is powered by 10 racks of IBM POWER 750 servers running Linux, and uses 15 terabytes of RAM, 2,880 processor cores and can operate at 80 teraflops, which is about 80 trillion operations per second.



There is no reason that computers will cease to get more powerful. They will keep growing until they are far more intelligent than the humans. Their rate of development and growth is much faster than that of ours.



As these people predict, in such a scenario, we will have to share the planet with this smarter than human intelligence things and we cannot predict their behaviors now. The one possibility is that we might merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs or maybe we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually.


As our modern world continues to careen further into the realm of fantasy and science fiction, it is interesting to note that our understanding of what it is to be human is changing. Is all that we are made up of data and information? Are we losing our humanity as we become more prone to technological advancements and marketing? If so, what will the human being of the future look like?



Additionally, what will it mean to 'live forever' in this future world? Presently such notions are steeped in myth and legend as dense and mysterious as vampires and other creatures of lore. Is the very concept of such myths undergoing a paradigm shift and if so, is it by design to put us off the trail of the real immortals who are living among us?



There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend.



Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:



Demand Sam Bailey

Monday, January 24, 2011

Humanity's mission to freeze time (or upload themselves to eternity)

It is fascinating that as mankind has become more technologically sophisticated as a race we have also become more determined to find loopholes out of our limited existence. John Gray's writing deftly analyzes the history of the quest for immortality and its role in the modern world.



John Gray on humanity's quest for immortality



(posted online at theGuardianUK)

How do we deal with a purposeless universe and the finality of death? From Victorian séances to the embalming of Lenin's corpse to schemes for uploading our minds into cyberspace, there have have been numerous attempts to deny man's mortality. Why can't we accept the limits of science?



The séance that Charles Darwin attended in January 1874 at the house of his brother Erasmus brought the pioneering biologist together with Francis Galton, eugenicist and one of the founders of modern psychology, and the novelist George Eliot. All three were anxious that the rise of spiritualism would block the advance of scientific materialism. They were unimpressed with what they witnessed – Darwin found the experience "hot and tiring" and left before sparks were seen and rapping heard – but they would have been seriously concerned had they known the future career of a fourth participant in the séance, the classical scholar and psychologist FWH Myers.



The inventor of the word "telepathy" and the writer who first introduced the work of Freud into Britain, Frederic Myers went on to become one of the founders of the Society for Psychical Research. Supported by some of the leading figures of the day, including the Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick and Arthur Balfour, president of the society and later prime minister, the psychical researchers believed human immortality might prove to be a scientifically demonstrable fact.



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The poet Mayakovsky captured the mood among Bolsheviks when Lenin's death was announced on 21 January 1924: "Lenin, even now," he wrote, "is more alive than all the living." For Krasin this was more than a poetic conceit. Soon after Lenin's funeral he published an article in the communist newspaper Izvestia entitled "The Architectural Immortalisation of Lenin". After deliberations involving Stalin and the head of the secret police, Felix Dzerzhinsky, who had organised the funeral, it had been decided to embalm Lenin rather than bury or cremate the body. Krasin wanted Lenin's mausoleum to be a site that surpassed Jerusalem and Mecca in grandeur and significance. In late March the funeral commission that had been set up to organise Lenin's interment was renamed the immortalisation commission.

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The fantasies that possessed the psychical researchers and the god-builders still have us in their grip today. Freezing our bodies or uploading our minds into a supercomputer will not deliver us from ourselves. Wars and revolutions will disturb our frozen remains, while death will stalk us in cyberspace – also a realm of mortal conflict. Science enlarges what humans can do. It cannot reprieve them from being what they are.





John Gray's The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death is published by Allen Lane


It is interesting to note that an individual can obtain immortality by impressive themselves upon the gestalt consciousness of a people. In much the same way that Lenin achieved immortality, so did Elvis Presley and for that matter, my Gran. So long as we have a mental record of what a person represents, s/he remain living.



But what of the immortal beings who walk among us, very much alive and active?



There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend. Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:



Demand Sam Bailey


Sunday, January 16, 2011

Fiction as immortality in The Science of Living Forever

Is storytelling a method of immortality in itself? That is part of the aim of Kelsey Newman's novel, The Science of Living Forever. In it, the narrative structure of a story, the role of the narrator and that of the fictional character all come into play as a timeless powerful piece. It's a brilliant post-modern concept.

The story - should we deem it as such - begins when Meg Carpenter, a thirtysomething writer living in Devonshire, England, mistakenly reviews a book called The Science of Living Forever by Kelsey Newman, a fictional version of physicist Frank Tipler's The Physics of Immortality.



Newman/Tipler's idea - which is (how can I put this kindly?) far-fetched - goes like this: The universe will eventually collapse in on itself in a Big Crunch (a forecast, by the way, largely rejected by cosmologists). In the moments before it meets its doom, its energy becomes infinite. Humans, who by this time have colonized the far reaches of the universe, will harness this energy to run an infinitely powerful computer simulation, one that will run forever, even after the physical universe disappears. Every human who has ever lived and every possible scenario for their lives will play out in the simulation, which for Newman is something akin to heaven - or, in Meg's conception, hell.



How do we know we're not living in the simulation right now? According to Newman, we probably are. But to experience it as heaven, we must first become a "truly individuated self" - the hero of our story.



Read more here


We often think of immortality as a timeless alteration of our own existence. In fiction, immortals are usually kings or paupers aspiring to greatness or fallen from grace. But what if we ourselves are immortal already and living within a fictional cycle of life, endlessly circling the same parking lot looking for a space, endlessly watching the same TV programs, sitting at the same desk, sleeping in the same bed. What if immortality is a trap that we have fallen into and like Siddhartha our only way of escape is to become awakened as an individual?



Heady stuff and a gripping read.



There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend. Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:



Demand Sam Bailey