When I have philosophical discussions with friends or family, typically the topic comes up regarding humans and computers. Being that I’m a tech geek, they always seem to think that I have the answers. I do have opinions, so they could suffice for now. My biggest opinion is that one day, when the Singularity happens, and artificial intelligence is created, computers will be able to help us eradicate a lot of the worlds problems. Although death is not a problem, it’s just a fact of life, I firmly believe that computers will be able to tap into the electrical signals in our brains and transfer them to a computer chip.

Cloning seems to be the method of choice for life preservation in science fiction movies, but there are tons of other movies out there that showcase the power of tapping into the brain using computers such as The Matrix. Learning Kung Fu or another language using a computer would be fantastic, but it would also be beneficial to preserve your memories and your intelligence into a computer chip so that when your brain fails whether through Alzheimer’s disease or old-age, you can continue thinking and processing your thoughts.

Then you might be asking yourself, “Doesn’t this mean that we won’t die?” Theoretically yes, although your organic brain matter will not exist anymore, your newly formed synthetic brain will continue to live on. So what does this mean for your body? Well obviously your body can’t function without your brain. As you might already know, 3-D printers can create new organs, and there are plenty of cybernetic limbs and organs that can be placed inside a human body to keep you alive. Now you might think this sounds like Dr. Frankenstein. Maybe a little bit, but it sounds to me more like a cyborg, so in this case you are pretty damn close to being human.

I’m not talking about immortality here, although it does sound a bit like it, I’m talking about life preservation more so, when people die way before their time. It’s a shame when this happens considering they could have been saved with a simple replacement of their brain with a synthetic computerized version. So what happens to your soul? That I don’t know, it’s hard to think of the fact that when you no longer have a brain or functioning organs, that your soul just dissipates. I believe that your soul is within you, it’s within your thoughts and your memories, it’s within the core of your being. When you transfer that to something else (whether a computer chip, or cybernetic organism) if it’s done the right way, I believe your soul will transfer with you because it is just energy after all.

When you die, I believe your (soul) energy / life force flows into the air and goes towards space. This means your soul / energy ultimately travels to join the rest of your ancestors, family members and friends in heaven or paradise. Your soul wouldn’t do that unless you were still alive in someway, especially since AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be able to keep us human by teaching us how to either clone our bodies or use computers in a way that we are still us.  I look forward to the year 2115, how about you?