And yet your codebase for needfeed is likely homed on separate redundant storage devices to ensure continuity in the inevitable event of the decay of the composites that store it. You'd probably be aghast at the suggestion that you put it all on one single point of failure and just let fate decide because the transitory nature of the project would make it more beautiful.
Yet how much more valuable is our consciousness than our accrued digital data? I don't understand how people can simultaneously understand that it is extremely unwise to leave their data to the fate of mechanical failure and yet not only accepting death but actually perceiving it as superior in many cases.
Defeating death is a worthy project. Embedding consciousness in a digital substrate or backup to genetically engineered bodies, or nanotech / biotech strategies for preserving existing bodies beyond what is natural are worthy pursuits.
Sometimes I wonder if the reason that this is not accepted is because of religious people in the world who feel like accepting that death is the end of their consciousness would be betraying their faith.
The codebase for my current project is well protected. For the moment. Most of the rest are gone. Their time came and went; this one will go too. As will I, and as will you.
I'm entirely in favor of research into extending human lifespan and maximizing the quality of human life. But this "circuits will save us all" stuff is not materially different than all the people who believe Santa-in-the-sky will let them live forever in happy-shiny-fluffy land. It's pure wish fulfillment, with no significant evidence.
Sure, and maybe some day if you've lived as long as you care to you may choose to allow your consciousness to fade away too, and that is all very well and good. It's the inability to do otherwise that is a problem.
With regards to possibility; it's the difference between hard science fiction and simple fiction, there's nothing ruling out that any of these things as possible, and in light of that fact I think pursuing them is an undeniably good idea.
We know the origins of Santa, we know the origins of god and religion, we understand why they're false and why that's a waste of time. Theoretical future advances in technology allowing fundamentally new paradigm shifts are something completely different.
Our very being, not just consciousness, is inseparable from our physical body. One day you maybe able to create an exact clone of the body to house the mind, but what good that would be? The body would be an exact clone with all its flaws. If you move the mind to a body that does not have those flaws, the mind is bound to change. We experience everything through our bodies and those experiences make our minds what they are. At least IMO.
I surely doubt that we know the origins of religion. And they surely are not a waste of time. Something that has been part of the human culture for as long as we know is bound to have some meaning. And pleas, take a look at some of the proofs for gods existence and nonexistence, some of them are quit elegant.
There's nothing ruling out the possibility of an afterlife either. Ergo, by your logic pursuing them is an undeniably good idea.
As I said before, extending lifespan is worth pursuing. Living longer is technically achievable. But eternal life is pure fantasy. Death comes for us all, and unless we face that fact squarely, we won't use what time we have as well as we could.
Sure, in the same sense that pursuing magic space unicorns (nobody proved that they don't exist) is equal to pursuing pulsed nuclear rocketry as a means of interplanetary transport is an undeniably good idea.
Yet how much more valuable is our consciousness than our accrued digital data? I don't understand how people can simultaneously understand that it is extremely unwise to leave their data to the fate of mechanical failure and yet not only accepting death but actually perceiving it as superior in many cases.
Defeating death is a worthy project. Embedding consciousness in a digital substrate or backup to genetically engineered bodies, or nanotech / biotech strategies for preserving existing bodies beyond what is natural are worthy pursuits.
Sometimes I wonder if the reason that this is not accepted is because of religious people in the world who feel like accepting that death is the end of their consciousness would be betraying their faith.