If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life – and only then will I be free to become myself.
— Martin Heidegger
Though I never play video games at home, each week at the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon I play video games (like Grand Theft Auto) with the children in the playroom while I volunteer. This week in the playroom, as I was watching our avatars spring back to life after dying each digital death, I began thinking about the possibilities of “digital reincarnation” in many different forms–from heritage preservation to consciousness replication.
Assuming, as many prominent scientists have recently proposed, that the universe is a computer simulation–what then are we to make of “permanent death”? Though some video games end in “permadeath,” most video games allow the player to press “continue” and play on–after being hit by a truck, or shot in the head. How might we also be digitally reincarnated? If the universe is a simulation, then the program would be backed up on multiple drives and scattered servers–leading not only to the likelihood of multiple selves, but also to possibility of digital reincarnation(s).
A few days ago, on the Daily Show, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku discussed two types of digital reincarnation–though he didn’t use that term. For instance, he suggested that scientists will eventually be able to upload memories into the minds of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. Further, he predicted that in the future humans will be able to download the entire contents of one’s consciousness onto a CD-ROM–to be saved and engaged with generations after the body has passed on. What he doesn’t mention, however, is the possibility that an external copy of our consciousness could be copied and distributed millions of times over–dispersing a single consciousness into unlimited forms (not unlike in the movie Her).
Would it be a blessing or a curse to be digitally reincarnated ad infinitum–for the consumption of others who one never met while “alive”? Is it–or will it be–impossible to have the luxury to just die and be forgotten? With Facebook already transforming the pages of the deceased into public memorials, these aren’t just questions about the future–but now. So, does it matter if we have no control over who curates our consciousness–or digital reincarnations–long after we’re gone?
The Daily Show
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