Why in the future we will not have their own "I"
A Life / / December 19, 2019
Imagine that you can get and download the entire contents of your brain to a computer and saved as a file. In a sense, it will be "you", but it is your body and mind.
Now imagine that you can not only download but also to edit your "I" - remove unpleasant memories, tweak self-esteem, and then upload the new "I" back into his head. It will still have you or not?
Well, let's give free rein to imagination: imagine teleportation device, which will break down the human body into atoms, distill them into a digital format in the form of data to send to Mars. On Mars, the other device accepts the data and transforms back into the atoms are in the same configuration as before splitting on the earth, that is in you. Or it will not be you, but your copy?
We have already taken the first step
It's hard to believe, but many of these technologies will have in our lifetime.
Unloading personality in network seems fanciful nonsense, but we already fill a great part of his life to social networks and cloud. Is this data is not a replica of our "I" part of our personality?
Modern technology allows not just make themselves, they allow on the fly to edit, modify, and present themselves in any light.
All conceivable boundaries are dissolved in information technology. What we own, it ceases to be material: music, photos, videos, even the money has long been digitized. Permanent access to the Internet blurs the boundaries between online and offline states. Our memories are stored as digital photos, statuses, comments.
Blurs the distinction between biological and technological: all kinds of implants, artificial joints and limbs, other biotech combinations have become part of our lives and will take it more and more place.
The future of identity
The idea that every human being is a person and personality, has appeared in the days of the Enlightenment. This happened largely due to the greatest technological achievements of those years - the printing press. Cheap books available have allowed people to look into the hearts and minds of others, to try on other people's images. Defining characteristics of a person suddenly become not only the occupation and social status, but also ideas, views and aspirations.
In the XX century, thanks to industrialization, production has become so simple and cheap that people began to buy goods for pleasureRather than out of necessity. Therefore, for most of the XX century the human identity is mainly determined by the fact that it consumes.
Today we are seeing more and more abstract forms of identity. Even such basic characteristics as gender, sexual orientation, race and appearance, become quite relative and uncertain.
As advances in technology happening more and more rapidly, humanity runs the risk of falling into an endless identity crisis.
There are three main areas of technology development that are able to radically change our view of ourselves.
1. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology
These two technologies are potentially open up infinite possibilities for changing the human body: once to change any part of it will be no harder than replacing the car part.
Genetic engineering may allow us to choose the genes of our future children. Nanotechnology leads to the fact that it will be possible to implant a microscopic computers in different parts of the body, and even replace individual cells in their improved version. And that's not to mention the plastic surgery and other appearance modifications, which will become more popular and affordable.
2. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence
Productivity growth of computers and cheaper means that sooner or later the most labor-intensive and highly skilled work will be done with machines artificial intelligence. It will be automated work of doctors, accountants, government officials and bankers. As a result, a huge proportion of the population remains without work. Since a considerable part of our identity rests on the awareness of the value of what we do, it is likely the global epidemic of identity crisis.
3. A virtual reality
A virtual reality It gives unlimited possibilities for changing the images and personality changes in the virtual world. With further development, it has become so attractive that many ever leave it in the real world.
Dawn techno Buddhism
Long ago Buddha made a sensation by saying that there is no 'I', but only our illusions and conventions. In a sense, technology support this idea. The illusion of self is so strong that we do not even imagine how easy it is to change our idea of who we are.
If you think about our own definition of the "I" virtual. We may think that "real" - we are the ones who we have in the physical world. In fact, we just have built a personality that is useful to us because it gives us a sense of stability and predictability of the world.
An offline our "I" is no more accurate reflection of who we are than virtual, because our identity has always depends on the situation, and consists entirely of information.
The more technology will allow us to manage the information and change it at will, the stronger we can modify ourselves - as long as the very concept of his own "I" nothing will remain.