Transhumanism - Trouble Without “Soul”

With exponential growth, A.I. will become far more superior than humans, which will lead to the so-called “super-intelligence”. Witnessing the development of “narrow” A.I. even at the current level, one can easily conclude that human intelligence is not unsurpassable - we are not at the summit of intelligence. It is only matter of time when machines will exhibit “super-intelligence” and become the greatest existential risk for the human race. For survival, the logic says, if we cannot defeat them then we join them. After all, A.I. does not have to be our enemy. In fact, A.I. is our child. It is an extension of human humanity and human civilization. Here comes the transhumanism: to merge with the machines. Transhumanism fervently promotes the idea of merging with A.I.. At first glance, transhumanism may sound frightening to some; however, in all fairness, it isn’t such a bad idea, given the alternative would be the annihilation of human race. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. This of course entails quite engineering feat. One must keep the mind open.

In theory, by migrating the mind (and perhaps “soul”) into silicon chips, humans will be able to access the future A.I.’s abilities and markedly extending one’s mental capacity. This way the mind can finally break free from the mortal and trouble prone brain and live forever. Mortality is a true human tragedy for such brilliant mind. Aging and death are the barriers for human mind to achieve its greatest potential. One might even argue that uploading human consciousness into computer chips is the natural path of human evolution. Although the feasibility of such transfer is highly debatable, it is enticing to think that one day we may be able to free our powerful mind from stuck in the 3-pound lobule of fragile tissue and move on to realize its true potential. We merge with A.I., evolving along with them and, at the end, transform into something higher. After all, who doesn’t feel, from time to time, that “the action does not match the ambition”. Since the awakening of human civilization, we have imaged to transcend into some higher forms of immortal beings. Longevity is highly desirable, even though may be overvalued since our current perspectives about life are entirely based on the understanding of our limited lifespan. After all what is the hurry to do anything if time is unlimited?

Transfer Mind to Silicon Chips - Thought Experiments

Let’s get a bit more philosophical. Let’s say with technological advances one day one can indeed upload the pattern of his/her brain chemical and electrical activities into a silicon chip, thus become a robot or an android. Today, we work to earn credits to maintain our physical and mental well being. In the future, we will work to earn credits to buy parts. One of the intriguing possibilities is brain uploading may allow copies of the same mind to be made and wirelessly linked together to form one core consciousness. This way, one can be in different places at the same time. Amazing, isn't it?

Let’s imagine that in the future the technology will be so advanced, the copy of one’s mind ( run in an android brain) will be in such high fidelity that it will have all the attributes of the original mind, with the same memories, same likes and dislikes, same emotional states and capacities, same compassion and motivations, same intuition/inclinations, same (or may be even enhanced) artistic abilities, etc. To everyone else who knew him/her, it is truly his/her mind and thoughts at work. No one can tell the difference between the old biological entity and the new android one. So, life goes on. But wait minute, is it still really him/her or his/her mind at work? I am afraid the answer is “no”. The new “him/her”, the android one, is merely a Xerox copy of his/her mind. There is nothing physical being transferred from the fleshy human brain to the machine. In fact, with technology so advanced, multiple copies can be made and, worse, his/her fleshy human brain might still be alive and functional, unless being otherwise destroyed (or killed) to preserve the uniqueness of his/her identity or individuality. Unless one-day science can prove the existence of “soul” and find a way to upload or transfer a person’s “soul”, it seems that such an approach is only the transfer of one’s brain patterns (or intelligence). In this sense, he/she will not become immortal, but his/her intelligence will. For the sick of migration of intelligence, it will be a great success. The intelligence is being successfully transferred to the new “body”. It will merge with A.I., adapt, grow and move on. But who win at the end? machines or humanity?

Wait second, really? after all the troubles we have to go through, now you are telling me that I am not going to live forever? even with all technological advances in the future, with advanced brain scans, supercomputers and nanobots? While, nothing is absolute. With all the new physics such as quantum entanglements, higher dimensions, dark matter and dark energy which seem to defy the laws of physics as we know it, perhaps outside the realm of our physic world other possibilities do exist. But for now, we must assume that transferring human brain patterns to machine is merely a pattern transfer, nothing more. Without a “soul” as the spiritual medium, true immortality seems difficult to reach.

“Pattern” is the Law

Migrating my mind to machine is merely making a copy of my mind? Sure, are you? While on the second thought, I am not so certain. At least, transferring the pattern of one’s mind to a machine is probably the closest thing you can get to be immortal. In fact, analyzing our daily, or shall I say nightly experiences may shed light on the topic. Let’s look at a scenario: you are tired at the end of a hard-working day. You go to bed and slept through the night like a baby. During your sleep, you totally lost your “consciousness” and, perhaps, had a few dreams, too; some of them are joyful, or sad, or may be scary? When you wake up the next morning, you feel refreshed, different, and maybe a bit hungry, or thirsty? The question is: are you still “you”, the same “you” the night before you fell into sleep? I would rather argue that in many ways you are not the same “you” at all; you have become a new entity. Your metabolism did not stop for a bit when you were sleeping. Your chemical patterns and compositions have much changed. Many of your cells turned over. Your neuronal synapses have also been re-modified. Your memories have been modified by your dreams. And you have surely forgotten something trivial occurred the night before. Then why are you so sure you are still “you” after waking up into your “new” body and mind? If you think it is the same “you” before falling into sleep and after you wake up in the morning, what makes it so different between waking up in your own body and waking up in, say, a “android” body? especially if all your memories are preserved and all your senses or sensors function the same ways, maybe even sharper? Similar argument may apply to a person before and after anesthesia during surgical procedures, which would be even more artificial comparing to one’s sleep-waking cycles. While you might argue that the two processes are completely different. “When I sleep, there is a continuity of my brain activities and my subconscious mind. The gaps are only in my conscious mind. And you strongly “believe in” so. While, I would argue that at least the line between sleep and human-machine mind transfer becomes blurry.

With all those mind-boggling ideas and thought processes, is it really that important to preserve individuality in a continuous way? or the importance of continuity and consistency are only illusions in this linear space-time fabric? something fabricated by our own believes to contrast the inescapable fate of mortality? In other word, isn’t preservation of “patterns” the foremost important? Indeed, when looking at our mind (without focusing too much on the part of “fleshy brain”), it consists only of “patterns” of chemical reactions and electronic potentials. From a purest point of view, the whole universe is made of patterns, and nothing but patterns. Pattern is the law. Maybe all we need to do is to take a leap of faith.

Human-Machine Chimeric

For those who have been carried away by the idea of mind uploading for too far, maybe we should take a step back and look at other alternatives: if we insist that continuity is essential part of immortality, the chimeric pathway of transhumanism seems to be an excellent solution. Human brain is gradually replaced by computer chips via implants or nanobots, region by region. At the end, the whole mind will be running on computer chips. Since during the chimeric stage the flesh brain and the chips coexist, one’s own biological brain tissue and computer chips both “naturally” contribute to the core consciousness, continuity is realized through gradual changes, rather than one time “copy and paste”. This may also avoid “murdering” the biological entity at the end of the mind transfer to preserve individuality.

Certain primitive devices have already been invented and some being implanted into human brain to allow regaining some degree of functionality eroded by neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease. Another example is an electronic device mimicking the hippocampus can reverse memory dysfunction in patients with damaged hippocampus, a brain structure important for memory encoding and retrieval. Non-invasive devices sensing and interpreting brain waves are also in development. More invasive deep brain implant is not far away. Ray Kurzweil envisioned that in the future advanced nanobots will be able to directly interact with our brain neurons and wireless transfer information between the brain and cloud computing. This way, our brain will be wirelessly connected to the clouds, becoming part of the clouds networks. One of the concerns is how compatible our biological brain will be to the future computer system? With inherent inferiority such as slow speed and high maintenance, how are we going to match the pace of future A.I. progress? Plus, nanotechnology and nanobots are themselves tricky technologies which can pose great danger to humans and the biological zone on earth. This will be another story another time. Even if everything goes as planned, human brains are probably at the most bottom level of the new informational hierarchy, for which the higher level in the cloud the more abstractive will be. How long can we preserve our individuality and humanity without being completely devoured by the machines? I guess we can leave the problem for the future immortals to solve.

~knowledge worth spreading~

(Thank you for reading. If you find this topic interesting, you may like some of my other posts linked below and @tongjibo. There are more to come on A.I., transhumanism and related moral and philosophical issues.)

My other blogs

1. The "Dark Side" of Artificial Intelligence
2. The Journey of Intelligence
3. Artificial Intelligence, Exponential Growth and the Doom's Day Scenario
4. Personalized Cancer Vaccines