My Theory Of Existence Beyond The Physical World.

Introduction

For as long as there has been intelligent life I’m sure, there has been a desire for immortality. The main draw back of this is the physical body, This is the shell which we as humans are totally depend upon. In this essay, I will discuss the possibility of a freedom from the physical world. This work is based upon facts and theories as well as the discussion of numerous hypotheses.

I will begin with the fact that the main obstruction standing in the way of immortality is the human body. The fact that cells age and die as we grow older is the fundamental reason why we die of old age. Cells loose the ability to divide and so body parts become weaker and loose functionality.

Because of these weaknesses, diseases and accidents becoming increasingly likely and thus death is imminent. Aging can easily be compared to a disease such as AIDS, where the human immune system fails and slowly is broken down and thus death is inevitable.

As much research as is going into the cure for AIDS should be going into a cure for aging. It is the belief of many scientists that aging was developed by natural selection.

Ageing is believed to have evolved because of the increasingly smaller probability of an organism still being alive at older age, due to accidents, which may be random and age-invariant. It is thought that the reason ageing developed was to concentrate resources onto human beings capable of healthy reproduction (young people). Not all organisms do age. Organisms that are suspected not to age include fish such as Sturgeon, plants, and hydra.

In which case if ageing has been developed by our bodies and is evidently not present in certain organisms, then there is clearly no need for such process. Such advancements could save near exist species of animals. So it is clear why ageing happens as it is clear it is not a necessary process.

I will now discuss the process of development of the human body and discuss where ageing kicks in. We all start off as sperm cells and fuse with an egg cell. From there we develop into a baby and are born.

After we are born we slowly develop into child hood (at approximately 2 year old). We continue to develop over a number of years until adolescence, where we develop to the point of being able to reproduce. After this process ends and we are fully capable of reproduction, development gradually stops.

It is important to draw the line here between development and aging. After this we start the opposite process of aging. Here is where humans can intervene by using intelligence to change the natural selection development of ageing.

Ageing is primarily the loss of ability to divide (or create new) cells. This can be healed by introducing new cells into the equation. For example lets say there are 5,000 cells in a certain bone. As the aging process develops 3,000 of these die leaving 2,000 cells. This is the reason for the weakening of the bone and the loss or gradual decease of functionality.

If however new cells were put in place which were fresh and had the ability to divide, then the process is held back. This can be done by using stem cells. All cells are specialised for a certain job such as part of an eye or part of a rib. Stem cells are blank cells with no specilaised job, but can become specialised depending on it’s surroundings.

Due to this, if stem cells were placed into a bone that was weakened the cells would become specialised as part of the bone and multiply healthily again. This potentially brings aging to a slamming halt.

Through the renewal of weakened cells it is possible to keep a human alive for as long as the surrounding may support him or her. However there will inevitably come a time when humans in physical form are unable to live on the earth as we do now. This is likely to be because of the rundown of resources or a natural disaster or indeed the product of a nuclear war.

So in such case this is not true immortality, so I will get to the point of this essay and discuss the theory of existence beyond the physical world. Most of the contents will be theoretical and based on hypotheses, however will be strongly backed up by what scientific facts are available.

The human body is extremely complex and by evolution (or power of god if you wish), it has become seemingly too complex to replicate. It seems that such complex systems that are not fully understood by us could be replicated. However it is entirely possible in theory to replicate these systems.

As a matter of fact Professors Itay Baruchi and Eshel Ben-Jacob have made a significant advance. These Tel Aviv University scientists have shown that it is possible to store basic memories in an artificial culture of live nerve cells. They are apparently the first in the world to have actually stored information in a cultured neural network for an extended period.

This is a huge step towards cyborg like brains and may also reveal more about how the brain works. “This is the first time, that multiple rudimentary memories have been imprinted in neural networks cultured outside the brain.” says Ben-Jacob. “The main achievement was the fact that we used the inhibition of the inhibitory neurons to stimulate the memory patterns. The new memories persist for days without interfering with or replacing others. The fact that they are imprinted using local chemical stimulation provides valuable hints as to how information is stored and retrieved in the brain," he says.

The results set the stage for the creation of a programmable neuromemory chip that could be hybridized with computer hardware to create the first neuro-silico cyberchip - an innovation with unimaginable capabilities. Obviously this is in very early stages of development and there is a long way to go in terms of research.

However despite all this we see that it is possible to recreate complex systems that can store memories through artificial intelligence (AI). This is a huge step towards possible cyberisation of the brain, which could help with disability and certain diseases. Although such uses are not of the interest of this essay, they are worth noting.

The possibilities of storing memories in a chip could make history keeping more accurate and increase the amount of knowledge we have. Storing memories is the introductory step towards what I’m getting to.

If a memory like system can be artificially recreated then there is no reason why others cannot. For example the recreation of human emotion and my main point the recreation of human awareness. If we could upload our awareness to a computer system and a world beyond physical, then the human body becomes a disposable shell.

It’s hard to imagine what this would mean for us. Certainly any chance of aging would be completely Eradicated. This would mean that we could be immortal without the need of beating the aging process. There would of course be other problems, such as: the amount of space in which to store humans awareness. From this point on I will refer to humans awareness as ghosts, not in the supernatural sense but in the sense that it is independent of the human body.

So these ghosts would surely take up room on some kind of memory where they are stored. And then there’s the risk of viruses, corruption and memory failure. However dangerous this way seem it is much safer than the physical world. Information would be freely available, there would be no dependency on resources such as food and fuels. It is also true that in a physical sense there will be no chance of violence.

Although there is still a probability that ghosts will attempt to delete each other or infect each other with viruses, the sense of pain will be eliminated. Such would ensure that physical human damage would not be possible. Such development would also be significant evidence that there is no god.

This may seem a little but of an ambitious assumption, however it rules the ideology of heaven and hell invalid. This is because any chance of going to either one is impossible due to immortality. And if a ghost is deleted it simply fails to exist and no heaven or hell will await raw data.

After all in the digital world, there will be no churches or mosques. Speech will be irrelevant as communication could be done directly. It would be impossible to blaspheme any religious beliefs as such. The teachings of religion which cause prejudice and separation would be void.

In fact the whole idea of religion and god would become totally irrelevant and impossible to relate to. Although theistic thoughts could still exist, the Obliteration of the fear of gods judgement and hell would enable people to think more logically.

Of course most theists would argue the old connection with Christ would support their faith. This however would likely soon escape them as they learn not to be controlled by fear. In the modern world today god is big brother and as in George Orwell’s frightening novel ‘1984’ where the thought police were to be feared, we fear god.

They say that god is loving and should not be feared, however it is the threat of hell that we fear most. The idea of god watching every move we make and knowing every thought we have, and if we step out of line hell awaits us. This is much more scary than the idea of Orwell’s 1984.

So to conclude I will just say that, by digitalisation of our ghosts, we are free from gods eyes as god has no place in the digital world. And even if he did he could only watch over our thoughts, however we would be in punishable anyway, as our lives will never end.

Due to the separation from the physical world, the human shell is no longer needed. This is good news for issues such as racism, sexism, separation, poverty and all kinds of prejudice. No one can be judged for there beliefs, aesthetics, or class. The idea of jealously becomes a blurred memory.

All kinds of separation would become extinct, there would be no poverty, no greed, no genocide, no wars. Human behaviour would radically improve and we would be independent of the needs of our bodies in the physical world. Assuming we still had emotions, we would still have emotional needs however.

It is debatable whether or not there would be new issues in the digital world. Maybe there would be similar issues which could cause separation but as far askew know it will not be the case.

Possibly the most exciting and inspirational thing about it, is the eventual extinction of evil. Violence will be ruled out as will war, jealousy, greed. What is there left to hate and do in a negative sense? There is very little left that could cause hate and naturally we will most likely forget the concept.

Next comes the question: Okay you have this idea of immortality in the digital world, but will everyone embrace the idea? The answer is of course no. There will be people who feel, they should live and die and they are destined to do so. Religious people will likely dismiss the idea as blasphemy. Any idea of living beyond the power of god will naturally not be welcomed by such people.

Okay so this is where the problems lie, we have separation between the physical world and the digital world. Will these two worlds be at war with each other? The most likely answer unfortunately is yes, two opposing views, two separate worlds there is collision. This is the primary problem with separation, as soon as there are two different sides they are viewed as opponents.

Separation should not be viewed in this manner however. Neither side can be labelled as good or evil, but they would each label the other evil and themselves good, naturally. But they are simply of different, mostly unconnected

views which brings me onto the next question: Can these two opposite worlds fight?

It would seem not as the digital and physical world are so separate. However is it not possible for physical beings to destroy data? And digital being to control physical objects. Yes of course both are possible.

There are clear advantages and disadvantages on both sides so it’s hard to tell who would win. But then there need not be a winner, constant opposition would be enough to comfort the insecurity of the human race.

So now I have discussed both a biological and technological path to immortality, Hopefully this essay will make you more aware of the possibilities that we as humans have in terms of immortality. It is unfortunate that our generation will likely not benefit from such a path to immortality. If only more people would open their eyes.