Will we be the last generation to experience death?

SafeSurfer

With medical advances and perhaps the possibility in the future of being able to upload our consciousness to a non biological storage device. Is it possible that today’s adults will be the last to experience involuntary death by natural causes?

How would it feel to miss out on the chance of extreme longevity or even immortality by a few measly decades?

Personally I would take some comfort in being the last generation to die rather than being the first to live forever.

NIMAN

We'll be dying for many generations to come.

CinemaGuy45

SafeSurfer wrote: »

With medical advances and perhaps the possibility in the future of being able to upload our consciousness to a non biological storage device. Is it possible that today’s adults will be the last to experience involuntary death by natural causes?

How would it feel to miss out on the chance of extreme longevity or even immortality by a few measly decades?

Personally I would take some comfort in being the last generation to die rather than being the first to live forever.

Wanderer78

No

B0jangles

hahaha no

(unless you mean the human race could potentially be wiped out by an all-out nuclear war so we'd literally be the last humans to die, then... maybe?)

Raheem Euro

SafeSurfer wrote: »

being able to upload our consciousness to a non biological storage device.

Imagine if you did that. And it worked out. And then there was a power cut.

Raheem Euro

Double

SafeSurfer

Raheem Euro wrote: »

Imagine if you did that. And it worked out. And then there was a power cut.

Or you did it twice and had a split personality.

B0jangles

Raheem Euro wrote: »

Imagine if you did that. And it worked out. And then there was a power cut.

Obi-Wan'd have one hell of a headache.

jimgoose

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Or you did it twice and had a split personality.

So you've done all that, and then some dork forks the branch. You end up with a bunch of smelly geeks arguing for all eternity over whether to use systemd or SYSV-style runcom. Welcome to the Eleventh Circle of Hell.

antodeco

Raheem Euro wrote: »

Imagine if you did that. And it worked out. And then there was a power cut.

Or my mam would record over it with a place in the sun.

CinemaGuy45

What if your file got merged with somebody else by mistake Margret Cash for example.

Raheem Euro

CinemaGuy45 wrote: »

What if your file got merged with somebody else by mistake Margret Cash for example.

No chance. My file is not her cousin.

B0jangles

Seriously though, we're far more likely to accidentally wipe ourselves out than intentionally achieve immortality.

I've thought for a long time that humanity as a species is both very very clever and extremely stupid - we're like an inventor who develops a supremely efficient, elegant and effective saw, then cannot see why it is not a good idea to use it on the branch we're all sitting on.

kneemos

Being stored on a device sounds like hell.

SafeSurfer

kneemos wrote: »

Being stored on a device sounds like hell.

Your consciousness is already stored on a device, it just happens to be biological.

JazzJaquzzi

Even if my thoughts, experiences, personality, and tentative plans to purchase a hat were copied to another container, I'd still end up pretty much dead at the end of my life, right?

Some other entity would be going about their business, cautiously perusing hat stores.

kneemos

SafeSurfer wrote: »

Your consciousness is already stored on a device, it just happens to be biological.

A device that provides sensory input.

The black mirror version looked cool. You'd get fed up after a while though

Raheem Euro

kneemos wrote: »

A device that provides sensory input.

Sensory input t can be replicated. maybe already has.

SimonTemplar

It would be great if science finds a way to slow down the aging process so that 90 becomes the new 60.

But artificially keeping death at bay by pumping someone full of drugs despite a degradation of mental and physical faculties is no way to live.

wexie

JazzJaquzzi wrote: »

Even if my thoughts, experiences, personality, and tentative plans to purchase a hat were copied to another container, I'd still end up pretty much dead at the end of my life, right?

Some other entity would be going about their business, cautiously perusing hat stores.

I guess that's how you define 'you'.

If that other entity all of a sudden had your thoughts, experiences, personality etc. How different would it be from being you?

Mind that's probably more of a question to be pondered in front of a fire with a few glasses (or bottles) of wine.

Bob Harris

The world will end before we all die.

wexie

Bob Harris wrote: »

The world will end before we all die.

SEPT 23 1989

always one thread on a Monday morning based on giving up drinking or dying:D

JazzJaquzzi

wexie wrote: »

I guess that's how you define 'you'.

If that other entity all of a sudden had your thoughts, experiences, personality etc. How different would it be from being you?

Mind that's probably more of a question to be pondered in front of a fire with a few glasses (or bottles) of wine.

Agreed! (Both about the defining of "You" and on the wine.) To me though, this would be a clone of myself at a specific time, whereas the real me (to me anyway) will branch off to a different life, and eventual death.

_Brian

SafeSurfer wrote: »

With medical advances and perhaps the possibility in the future of being able to upload our consciousness to a non biological storage device. Is it possible that today’s adults will be the last to experience involuntary death by natural causes?

How would it feel to miss out on the chance of extreme longevity or even immortality by a few measly decades?

Personally I would take some comfort in being the last generation to die rather than being the first to live forever.

https://goo.gl/images/vH5WBe

_Brian

Bob Harris wrote: »

The world will end before we all die.

More accurate, we will end the world before we all die

Bob Harris

SafeSurfer wrote: »

With medical advances and perhaps the possibility in the future of being able to upload our consciousness to a non biological storage device. Is it possible that today’s adults will be the last to experience involuntary death by natural causes?

How would it feel to miss out on the chance of extreme longevity or even immortality by a few measly decades?

Personally I would take some comfort in being the last generation to die rather than being the first to live forever.

There is a sizeable portion of the world population that struggle to stay alive through conventional means let alone have the resources to 'upload their consciousness' or some such rubbish.

wexie

Bob Harris wrote: »

There is a sizeable portion of the world population that struggle to stay alive through conventional means let alone have the resources to 'upload their consciousness' or some such rubbish.

......I guess it depends on who you ask.

Seem to be plenty of people that believe you just need to have a little faith and then you'll eventually be stored in the cloud!!

:pac:

505_

I'm not stupid, no one lives forever. No one. But with advances in modern science and my high level of income, I mean, it's not crazy to think I can't live to be 245, maybe 300.

Uriel.

Watching a Netflix show called travelers at the moment which has this concept of a transferable consciousness from a source to a host body/brain. Is an interesting concept. I would like to be able to do it. Could be fun. But a mental mind **** too

fixXxer

Uploading your consciousness would not be uploading you. It would be uploading a copy that thinks its you.

Bob Harris

505_ wrote: »

I'm not stupid, no one lives forever. No one. But with advances in modern science and my high level of income, I mean, it's not crazy to think I can't live to be 245, maybe 300.

If you get to 300 do you get Spartan status?

JazzJaquzzi

Uriel. wrote: »

Watching a Netflix show called travelers at the moment which has this concept of a transferable consciousness from a source to a host body/brain. Is an interesting concept. I would like to be able to do it. Could be fun. But a mental mind **** too

That could be great, but the thing that some people don't immediately grasp is that, in reality, we are taking about the potential to copy ourselves into something else; not to transfer ourselves. I'm a bit selfish about this - I don't want some other entity walking around for eons, being a new, less squash-able me.

And I like me. I know my flaws, I can criticise myself, but I'm not the worst. I would be worried about the clone me. If it's something that would think like me, but be essentially some non human without rights, it could be in for an unpleasant time.

Now, if I could hop myself from body to body, that would be fun.

daithi7

_Brian wrote: »

More accurate, we will end the world before we all die

More acurate again, we will end the world and we will all die simultaneously.....

P.s. Lovely positive thought for a Monday

SafeSurfer

fixxxer wrote: »

Uploading your consciousness would not be uploading you. It would be uploading a copy that thinks its you.

What are “you” if not your consciousness?

You say it thinks it’s you. However you think you are you too.

fixXxer

How do you upload something like consciousness? My consciousness is unique to my meat brain. Unless my meat brain is involved somehow then its copying patterns. That's not me, that's a copy of my. SO I would still die but a copy would live on.

wakka12

I think there will continue to be amazing and transformative medical advances for years to come but its impossible to know when immortality might be achieved

Things like this, effectively end the chance of sudden cardiac arrest which kills millions every year, is a huge advancement that could be available within a decade
Even just the last few decades things as simple as certain blood pressure medication have saved millions of lives but theyre just thought of as normal everyday things now and we dont appreciate the advances they are

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/01/heart-hugging-device-could-help-keep-beat

wakka12

fixxxer wrote: »

Uploading your consciousness would not be uploading you. It would be uploading a copy that thinks its you.

Yes technically you have to die to upload your consciousness. So it really is technically cloning yourself. But what does it matter, it will just feel like going to sleep and waking up to you, if you died in your sleep and woke up the next morning and doctors said they managed to save you by putting your consciousness in a new body you wouldnt be able to tell unless they told you

Mutant z

Most certainly not death will exist for as long as humanity exists.

Necro

wakka12 wrote:

Yes technically you have to die to upload your consciousness. So it really is technically cloning yourself. But what does it matter, it will just feel like going to sleep and waking up to you, if you died in your sleep and woke up the next morning and doctors said they put your consciousness in a new body you wouldnt be able to tell unless they told you

But does consciousness live on after death?
What about those that are declared brain dead before they could have this miraculous treatment?
A lot of people die very suddenly and quickly, you'd need to plan the precise moment of your death, or make a copy of your consciousness and store it somewhere in case you had a heart attack/got into a car crash/ran over by a pack of sulky racers/tripped and smashed your skull on a patch of ice....


Right?

wakka12

Mutant z wrote: »

Most certainly not death will exist for as long as humanity exists.

The only certain thing is theres no way of knowing that

riffmongous

wakka12 wrote: »

Yes technically you have to die to upload your consciousness. So it really is technically cloning yourself. But what does it matter, it will just feel like going to sleep and waking up to you, if you died in your sleep and woke up the next morning and doctors said they managed to save you by putting your consciousness in a new body you wouldnt be able to tell unless they told you

But my understanding is that you won't wake up. It's the copy that will and you won't experience it

eviltimeban

wakka12 wrote: »

Yes technically you have to die to upload your consciousness. So it really is technically cloning yourself. But what does it matter, it will just feel like going to sleep and waking up to you, if you died in your sleep and woke up the next morning and doctors said they managed to save you by putting your consciousness in a new body you wouldnt be able to tell unless they told you

Would it not still be a copy? Like, I can create an Excel file, then make a copy of it, then delete the original, and what I'd have is an identical version, but not the original. The original is in the trash.

If you uploaded your consciousness seamlessly, IOW, your current consciousness that carried on without stopping, it would be "you". Any other option and you're just making a copy

If the body ages to it's death point, or is ravaged by cancer / disease etc, I wonder could there be an option to remove your brain from you body and it be kept alive, consciousness and all, remotely? The literal "brain in a jar".

professore

fixxxer wrote: »

Uploading your consciousness would not be uploading you. It would be uploading a copy that thinks its you.

So many people don't get this. It's like the whole cloning thing, where so many people think they can live as their clone. Eehhh no, in that case twins would only have a single consciousness between them and when one died they would still live in the other one.

jimgoose

professore wrote: »

So many people don't get this. It's like the whole cloning thing, where so many people think they can live as their clone. Eehhh no, in that case twins would only have a single consciousness between them and when one died they would still live in the other one.

Quite. In order for this actually to function as people imagine it does, we would have to master some sort of clustering after uploading of "consciousness".

Hector Savage

Even if we could cheat death (we maybe able to but it's a good bit off yet) psychologically how the hell could you deal with it ?
hmmm what am I gonna do for the next ......... 300 billion billion billion years ???

F*CK THAT!

wexie

Hector Savage wrote: »

Even if we could cheat death (we maybe able to but it's a good bit off yet) psychologically how the hell could you deal with it ?
hmmm what am I gonna do for the next ......... 300 billion billion billion years ???

F*CK THAT!

Eh, Netflix and chill!!

wexie

professore wrote: »

fixxxer wrote: »

Uploading your consciousness would not be uploading you. It would be uploading a copy that thinks its you.

So many people don't get this. It's like the whole cloning thing, where so many people think they can live as their clone. Eehhh no, in that case twins would only have a single consciousness between them and when one died they would still live in the other one.

They tried that in multiplicity, just didn't work, especially once the made a copy from one of the copies. Wasn't quite as sharp as the original...

That knight in the Last Crusade is a possible benchmark.