This was such an enjoyable read. What impressed me most was how effortlessly the story blended big philosophical questions with genuine warmth and humor....
I would take the position that death is a thing that happens to the body. You die when your body ceases to function. It has nothing to do with the soul.
Although I am not religious, these ideas mirror the beliefs of the Abrahamic religions, which assert that the soul is immortal.
Interesting, I suppose I take a similar stance. Then would you think "soul" death to be closer to what "true death" is? Curious, what are your views on consciousness uploading to the internet (or something of that sort, like a technical version of GP), where our "souls" or consciousness live in a simulated environment (like the Matrix maybe, but body gone rather than in induced comma-like state), would you think that is a way of cheating death?
I have no fundamental problem with the concept of machine consciousness. Claude Shannon, asked whether machines can think, said,, "You bet. We're machines, and we think." (Quote from memory, so may not be exact.) This is a perfect answer, not because it's obviously correct, but because it places the question exactly where it ought to be. Are we machines? If we are, then yes, machines can think. If we are not, then you'll have to work to escape the trap of vitalism.
As a card-carrying neuroscientist, I am skeptical of the idea of upload. No science fiction treatment of uploading I have seen (with the possible exception of Neal Stephenson's Fall, or Dodge in Hell) shows a realistic awareness of how difficult the problem is.
Hope you don’t mind me chatting in comments haha, I hope it makes the comments section more lively. I have been curious about the consciousness uploading idea from a neuroscience pov but never really talked with a neuroscientist before. I guess it's one of my plot bunnies for a future sci-fi I was thinking about (my current published work is philosophical nonfiction regarding human subjectivity in the AI age, but I'm really into sci-fi as well). Would you say the hardest part is the technical part, like we haven't really figured out how brains work well enough to do so, or more from the human "consciousness" part (whatever that may be), in that humans can't quite grasp what it's like to exist in such a different form, like you can't really make sense of a sense that you don't have?
Yeah, I get the impression that part is still rather far from figured out. How about brain-computer interfaces? I know companies like Neuralink are working on that. Like, you don’t do the uploading all at once, creating a whole brain, the tech taking decades to develop, where people gradually outsource parts of their thinking to computers, in the process learning more about how human brains work, then until the interaction becomes so common that we can essentially say the computer brain is close enough.
Love this! 💯
The part about how of course God has read all of the Barbara Cartland romances due to being God gave me a good chuckle!, lol. 📚📖📚
Nice one I give it to you! Thanks for writing this amazing article
My pleasure! I'm glad you liked it.
The idea of outsmarting death through a bug in the system is brilliant, but what stayed with me most was their loyalty to each other and to Will.
Thanks—glad you liked my imaginary friends.
Thank you for sharing
This was such an enjoyable read. What impressed me most was how effortlessly the story blended big philosophical questions with genuine warmth and humor....
What?! There was philosophy in there? I’ll have to read it again…
;-}
Hmm. cosmic horror in science fiction. Advocate judges, but it's an AI? operating in strict code?
Good story <3
Interesting piece indeed. I wonder what exactly is death anyway, if the "soul" lives on. Would that just be a changed form of existence then?
I would take the position that death is a thing that happens to the body. You die when your body ceases to function. It has nothing to do with the soul.
Although I am not religious, these ideas mirror the beliefs of the Abrahamic religions, which assert that the soul is immortal.
Interesting, I suppose I take a similar stance. Then would you think "soul" death to be closer to what "true death" is? Curious, what are your views on consciousness uploading to the internet (or something of that sort, like a technical version of GP), where our "souls" or consciousness live in a simulated environment (like the Matrix maybe, but body gone rather than in induced comma-like state), would you think that is a way of cheating death?
I have no fundamental problem with the concept of machine consciousness. Claude Shannon, asked whether machines can think, said,, "You bet. We're machines, and we think." (Quote from memory, so may not be exact.) This is a perfect answer, not because it's obviously correct, but because it places the question exactly where it ought to be. Are we machines? If we are, then yes, machines can think. If we are not, then you'll have to work to escape the trap of vitalism.
As a card-carrying neuroscientist, I am skeptical of the idea of upload. No science fiction treatment of uploading I have seen (with the possible exception of Neal Stephenson's Fall, or Dodge in Hell) shows a realistic awareness of how difficult the problem is.
Hope you don’t mind me chatting in comments haha, I hope it makes the comments section more lively. I have been curious about the consciousness uploading idea from a neuroscience pov but never really talked with a neuroscientist before. I guess it's one of my plot bunnies for a future sci-fi I was thinking about (my current published work is philosophical nonfiction regarding human subjectivity in the AI age, but I'm really into sci-fi as well). Would you say the hardest part is the technical part, like we haven't really figured out how brains work well enough to do so, or more from the human "consciousness" part (whatever that may be), in that humans can't quite grasp what it's like to exist in such a different form, like you can't really make sense of a sense that you don't have?
I was thinking only of the technical problem of building a machine that works like a brain, and the brain of a specific person at that.
Yeah, I get the impression that part is still rather far from figured out. How about brain-computer interfaces? I know companies like Neuralink are working on that. Like, you don’t do the uploading all at once, creating a whole brain, the tech taking decades to develop, where people gradually outsource parts of their thinking to computers, in the process learning more about how human brains work, then until the interaction becomes so common that we can essentially say the computer brain is close enough.
This was so much fun. Seamless world building and a great story. Thanks for the read!
I’m glad you liked it. This one was fun to write.
Keep going brother, good read!
Its awesome, keep writing. I'll be waiting for the next one and please do check my work also