If you will, please, watch the video, first, and then come back and read the remainder of this brief essay.
Until very recently, I never believed that anything approaching immortality may even remotely be possible to mankind; at least, not apart from the omnipotent working and will of Almighty God. But in the course of my recent studies and investigations, I am beginning to reconsider all of my earlier assumptions and beliefs about what may, or may not, lie within the reach of man.
It is important to note, that the men who appeared in the above video that (hopefully) you just watched, are none of them crackpots. They are some of the world's leading scientists, engineers, inventors, and/or philosophers. Ray Kurzweil is Director of Engineering for GOOGLE. Ben Goertzel is Chief Scientist for Hanson Robotics. Hugo De Garis is scared to death. Until very recently, he led an effort financed by the Chinese government, which is trying to create the world's first working, artificial brain ~ which, of course, the Chinese want to incorporate that technology in commercially available robots (not to mention a host of other, higher level applications).
De Garis, among many others whose work is related to artificial intelligence, has often expressed his deep fears that, within the next decade or so, when the capabilities of artificial intelligences (which De Garis calls, "artilects") shall then far surpass all human ability, humanity will then be in exceeding great danger, for various reasons. (See this video, here.)
Goertzel, and a host of others, are more optimistic, while still candidly admitting the real possibility of De Garis's fears coming true. Their hope is that moral principles can somehow not only be built into future AGI (artificial general intelligence) machines but, also, that those machines will thereafter retain those principles as part of their own, self-learning/self-developing programs (artificial minds).
I must admit that I am probably at least 5 ~ if not 10 ~ years behind the curve, with respect to my own (lack of) awareness regarding these rapidly developing fields of science and technology. Worse than that, it appears to me that most everyone else is still totally oblivious to what has been going on, in this realm of research and development, during the early years of the 21st century. We have a L-O-T of catching up to do.
I must get right to a most important point I want to make, one that is foundational to every future discussion related to this subject matter. Most futurists (as I have been discussing and alluding to) fully believe and expect that it will soon be possible to digitize, and then digitally transfer, individual, human minds ~ entire and intact ~ and then integrate the same with any of a great variety of different substrates (bodies). In other words, they believe that it is possible to transfer a person's mind (spirit, soul) to a different body.
IS THAT POSSIBLE? That is the preeminent question.
Until about a month or so ago, I adamantly insisted that such was not possible ~ because of how I thought I understood the nature of spirit. But a simple revelation changed my mind. For, I realized that not only is it possible to transfer a human mind to a different body. In fact, that very thing has been done before. Many times. Millions of times, actually.
What happens to a Christian's spirit (mind), when they "die?" Doesn't the Bible tell us that the spirit of man lives on, for ever? Moreover, the fact that the Christian receives a new body, immediately after his or her spirit departs this earthly body, is a truth not at all deeply hidden in Scripture; never mind that mainstream 'Christian' teaching knows little or nothing about that.
So, we see that it is possible to transfer a human mind, intact, to a different substrate (body). Now, whether or not that may ever be possible to man himself, apart from the divine working of the Creator, is another question.
I believe it is important and relevant, too, to keep in mind the reason, which God himself stated, for which God introduced mass confusion in human language, at the tower of Babel project, a few thousands of years ago. Here is what the Scripture says about that:
"And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." (Genesis 11:5-6)On the face of it, that passage seems to suggest that mankind is invested with, perhaps, limitless ability. One might even say God-like ability. We do know that man was created in God's own image and likeness. Have we failed to really appreciate what that may mean?
As I am more and more becoming immersed in researching these fascinating trends, I'm discovering an immense wealth of materials available on the Internet, pertaining to a broad range of subjects related to: artificial intelligence; robotics; nano-technology; genetic engineering; materials engineering; transhumanism; etc., etc. ~ not to mention a lot of related, philosophical discussion.
I'm also discovering that there is, by comparison, a paucity of public discourse representing a Biblical perspective, concerning these prophetically vital subjects.
I'll give you a link to just one more interesting and informative video (here), for your perusal, which I hope will further whet your appetite to explore and, hopefully, study what is going on. The world desperately needs to have well-informed and thoughtful Christian input, as part of the ongoing discussion. Now, there's an understatement, if ever there was one.
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