Well…... why? Do you know why? Might you have any possible theories or observations that can help advance this phenomenon? Well I might. Or I think I might… And chances are, you most likely might, but that's all we share so far: a big possibility… There is no absolute certainty… If you remember from our readings, my title is an original question that was asked by a German philosopher in the early 1800. And notice this same question is still being asked today, 200 years later, by scientists and philosophers alike.
I want to address this issue as my first, because this is a fundamental issue in science as well as in philosophy that we all have to agree on… As scholars and professionals in the field of psychology, there are limitations to how much information and knowledge we can acquire… Even with our advancements in science and medicine, as a human race, we still are incapable of answering the most essential and basic question of life.
In my previous paragraphs, I was addressing life and its boundless mysteries. But we are going to switch gears here and turn our attention to life's equal friend: death. The clip I want you to view below is a trailer of a documentary entitled "Transcendent Man." This film revolves around the life and ideas of a noted inventor and futurist, Ray Kurzweil.
His inventions include:
1. First scanning machine
2. Kurzweil reading machine
3. Kurzweil 1000 OCR software
4. The first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech-recognition software
5. Kurzweil 250 Music Synthesizer (which is used by music artists like Stevie Wonder)
In our textbook they mentioned some fundamental laws of science and physics. And I thought of one interesting explanation Ray Kurzweil contributed to the world of science, which is the "Law of Accelerated Returns." With this idea, he believes life as we know it will result into a phenomenon called "singularity." Human race will soon see a merging of human-machine life and existence that has the advancement to transcend biological mortality or mortality, i.e. death.
So whether or not, we are close to realizing or equipped to predicting the events of the world in the future and the mysteries of existence, these advancements we have accumulated thus far are nothing more than just reflections of who we are as people today. We may never know certainty of life and the future, but that's ok. That's what allows us the entitlement to creativity and to life in the first place…
So what do you guys think? Do you all agree that in the future we might possibly be able to transcend death? Do you think that human-machine existence will be a possibility in the future? Please express your ideas in a comment! (:
You pose a very interesting question Louelynn. People have been asking this question for hundreds of thousands of years. Basically, where do we come from, how is it that we exist, and that everything around us exists; instead of nothing at all. You said the limitations of science may prevent us from answering this question; and I strongly side with you on that. Science can only show us the applications of what is tangible, visible, and right in front of us. This whole concept transcends the scope of just biology and chemistry. In the trailer posted, they mention how technology changed little back then; but it is rapidly evolving right now, so I can only imagine how the future will be….It may be possible to start developing a conscience awareness of the actual world around us. Society will eventually piggyback on technology for all its answers and desires. However, the idea of transcending death is again in my opinion not something we have control over and is at all within our scope. As for that human machine, I'd say anything is possible with technology!
ReplyDeleteTechnology today is developing and growing each day. It is also advancing in certain areas around the world. As the video described about the future technology Kurzweil invention, it does give off an uncomfortable vibe of a human- machine existence. Personally, I don’t think the future will necessarily transcend to death but having that invention come to play; it can possible lead to future necessities in life. Thus, having a human- machine might advance to more technology such as human- machine organs or etc.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all…. Your video was very interesting, and has greatly caught my attention. I can't help but remember Mary Shelley's "Frankenstine" and Orson Scott Card "Enders Game" both books that eerily coincide with this video. It is impossible, but has for ages been spoken about, to recreate a human being and restore them back from the dead. A human is a very complex being, with reasoning capabilities, and emotional reasoning as well. Suppose that you were able to preserve a brain and maintain it functioning, despite the knowledge in it, it is impossible to restore that individual and render them exactly as they were when they lived. Why? Because despite the preservation of the brain, the technology used to maintain them alive may damage the brain, due to its power. But if someone can weld this kind of power….. Great God above, help us! I believe, sometimes, and somethings, we are just better off not knowing, its like The Terminator, but in real life!! Or like Eagle's Eye, not the most pleasant experience I can assure you, and suppose, technology DOES develop a conscious of its own…. what then? Who will control that almost, all-seeing eye? This opens a lot of doors I don't think the Nations are ready to deal with just yet.
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