Practical Immortality

some requirements and design

2009-01-06T14:40:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I posted here, neglecting it for other things. But I have been thinking about it. It is probably time to post some analysis. Requirements analysis first:
I can think of three, and would like to impose a fourth, but don't want to be too greedy.

1. No death. A person should not experience death and should experience live beyond the normal lifespan of a human being, indeed forever.

2. Not a copy. The immortal person should not just be a copy of the original, but the original person, in some proveable way.

3. Not just a maintenance of the human body. Bodies cannot survive forever. Impossible.
And meat is not a good medium for anything. Transference of the person, the actual person into another medium is essential. Computers with rigorous backup facilities are the obvious answer.

4. Desirable if not literally a requirement. De-aging. The essence of a person is not in the physical body, and should not be in the Virtual Reality body either. So it should be possible to age that physical representation down to any age, without changing the memories, essence or consciousness of that person.

Elsewhere I have written why I think this is possible, using both the parallel processor and sympathic string metaphors. These can be more than metaphors. Here are some design
notes:

1. A silicon or other semiconductor processing and memory unit can be configured as a neural network using known methods. Using sensor suits to cover the body and video cameras for
face and other body movements an estimate of both inputs and outputs for a person can be generated and used to train the neural network, which can at some time be used as a more intimate connection to a person by controlling visual and auditory stimulus and using a piezoelectric sensor/effector suit to not only sense body movements but feed them back to the user, putting the silicon processor completely in parallel with the biological one, which can then be taken offline.

2. A neural network in a computer can be stimulated into a true sympathetic resonator which captures the same person, just as sympathetic strings on a musical instrument capture the same sound, become part of the same sound, and can even replace it if the original strings are damped. To do this one need only sense the electromagnetic field generated by brain activity in the biological person and have that activity induced then reinforced by low power transceivers around the brain. Again the neural network will be a part of the person, whose biological processor can then be taken offline.

Some notes on testing, non-destructive testing. A person can be put into a coma, allowing the silicon processor to take over. This can be done slowly, while the biological process talks, uttering a long monologue. As the chemicals induce the coma, the monologue should continue. Then the biological process can be put back online and the results of this experiment examined.

This is a sketch of a true engineering analysis which should be done. What I have sketched here can be expanded, then work can begin to implement and test it. I can see almost infinite merit in trying it and few dangers.

dpw

Transhuman community

2008-06-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 2, 2008

It seems obvious that this blog and its associated web pages should interest people in the transhuman community, a loose assortment of people who discuss various things beyond the human condition. I am writing material for this community, but will not post it on their mailing list until it is all assembled. I now have a substantial collection of web pages, though few have much content on them. One new one which move from my finding compatibles blog and web page -- http://FindCompatibles.awardspace.com/ to the birth of a practical immortality is discussed on a new web page,http://FindCompatibles.awardspace.com/SystemByBeth.html whichshould also be available at
http://PracticalImmortality.awardspace.com/SystemByBeth.html

dpw

http://dougwilson.rack111.practicalImmortality.html

2008-05-19T15:45:00.000-07:00

I don't seem to have too much luck with URL's. If clicking on the title does not work, try this: http://dougwilson.rack111.com/practicalimmortality.html
but you might have to copy the URL and paste it into your browser, sigh.

dpw

http://dougwilson.rack111.com/practicalimmortality.html

2008-05-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

If clicking on the title of this entry, try http://dougwilson.rack111.com/practicalimmortality.html

dpw

sex-religion-politics

2008-05-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

I have a new blog, devoted to sex, politics and religion, the "sensitive" topics that are taboo in polite conversation. The kind of immortality described in this blog is practical immortality not religious immortality, but the new blog should interest some people. Here are some links for easy access:

Please see these blogs:

FindCompatibles devoted to matching people with friends, lovers, jobs, places to live and so on, but doing so in ways that will actually work, using good math, good algorithms, good analysis.

Technological Fantasies devoted to future stuff, new ideas, things that might be invented or might happen, such as what is listed above and below.

Practical Immortality yes, practical immortality. Don't write this off as
insanity, please. See the first entry in the blog first.

Or, (oops!) here:

Practical Immortality hmmm. Slight spelling mistake. Use the above
link instead.

Related Web Pages are, of course,
FindCompatibles,
Technological Fantasies
and Practical
Immortality, plus Social
Tech and my own home
page. For now these are (probably) all identical.

dpw

cross-reference web pages

2008-05-16T12:09:00.001-07:00

Please see http://practicalimmortality.awardspace.com

dpw

where to post about immortality?

2008-05-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

Using Google I could find a few relevent blogs that I could find no way to post on, and a few ancient posts on this subject on unrelated blogs where I could make add a comment to some two year old posting, but nothing except this blog itself where I could easily post at all. Actually if when I searched for Practical Immortality on the web I found nothing useful, but when I searched for Practical Immortality on blogs this was at the top of the list. Even so, nobody but myself has posted on it.

Completely invisible no matter how I searched for them were my Technological Fantasies and FindCompatibles blogs when I searched for them in any obvious way, though oddly enough I found a couple of post on them which happened to contain the phrase Practical Immortality.
Strange.

If someone could find me any blog on practical immortality to post on I would be grateful. Some seem to exist but I could not find any way to post on them. Frustrating. Help me, please.

related blogs

2008-05-03T11:00:00.000-07:00

What sounds less possible than Practical Immortality? It might be called a fantasy, a technological fantasy. For this and other ideas, see my other blog, Technological Fantasies.
I claim that immortality is possible, in just the way described in my first post here. Indeed, I think all of the fantasies on that other blog are possible, and I hint at how they might be achieved. I hope someone will review these fantasies and criticize them.

I have another blog, my first, which defines what I believe to be the first step to accomplishing any of these fantasies. To work on such extraordinary projects we must find compatible people.
I have a blog called FindCompatibles, which is not only about finding people to work together, but also about finding lovers, friends, jobs, and other aspects of a person's social environment.

I do think immortality is achievable, practical, and probably inevitable. Please review my first post in this blog to see what I mean. I hope someone will complain that this is nonsense. I claim it is not. I'd like a chance to defend my views.

dpw

Practical Immortality

2008-05-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

I am not sure how many of these ideas are new. I came to write a synthesis of them while writing a large novel. Two ideas are key: the first is that a person can exist in a virtual reality world hosted on a supercomputer. The second is that such a person does not have to be just a copy of its realworld predecessor, but can actually be that person. Creating a copy of yourself in a computer is not true immortality, because that person is only a copy, no matter how good a copy. But I claim that the person himself or herself can be transfered into the virtual reality world.

There are two metaphors which illustrate this point. One is the notion of putting two computers in parallel, having them work in parallel for a while, then shutting one down. Suppose a large neural network hosted on a supercomputer as a model for a person is synched to a person, using as much of the person's own inputs and outputs as possible to maintain synchronization. Then a biological computer and an electronic one are working in parallel. At that point the biological computer can be shut down, leaving the syncronized electronic one to continue. That can be seen as a transfer of a person into the virtual reality world maintained on the electronic supercomputer. This may be at least a metaphor, possibly a practical method for achieving true immortality.

Another metaphor is related, but simpler and perhaps easier to understand. Imagine a two necked 12-string guitar, with each neck having the same pitch range. Let a chord be started on one neck, one set of strings, and sustained with the feedback based sustain lever. Now finger the same chord on the other neck, other set of strings, perhaps with the aid of another person. Even without anyone playing (striking) the second set of string, they will start to vibrate through sympathetic vibration. Then both sets of strings will be synchronously playing the same chord. Now if the first set of strings is completely damped to soundlessness, probably with the aid of another person wielding a felt damper, the original sound, unchanged in any way, will continue on the second set of strings. Think of this as a transfer of personality and identity from one medium to another.

Through consideration of both metaphors and especially the first, which may be a practical method, I have come to the conclusion that real immortality in a virtual world is possible. Computers powerful enough to host such a virtual reality world and some number of inhabitants probably already exist and will certainly be widespread in the future.

I have another way of thinking about this, based on wave mechanics and integral transforms, but that is a bit much for now. I'll post it on request.

I hope anyone who reads this will also look at the Finding Compatibles blog on this site. It may seem to be on an entirely different topic, but I claim that to accomplish anything, even making immortality practical for everyone, one must start by finding people who can work together.

dpw