Intrinsic identity: the informational nature of human beings
What or who is a Human? This has been debated, analyzed, theorized and cross disciplinarily dwelled on for as long as the self aware consciousness of the human apes was spurred to do so by its innate curiosity. I shall provide an answer, as short and concise as possible. Humans are information stored, processed, altered, input and output. DNA - the very blueprint for a human - is information - altered and adjusted through the evolutionary process. However as clearly shown through amputation, genetic engineering, artificial organ and limb transplantation: DNA as a blue print can be fundamentally altered but it doesn’t fundamentally change the human being within - only marginally. The brain itself can be chemically forced into altered states - literally altered chemically and physically - but information lost or damaged, can be re-learned or re-acquired - thus the physicality of the brain is irrelevant to defining the human identity as well. Multiple recent studies, especially ones that have to do with reading thoughts and/or transmitting - storing them into computers, clearly show that the brain can be done away with altogether - it is a temporary solution not the pinnacle of human evolution. Thus the vehicle is not relevant, neither the human body nor the brain itself constitute a human being. What does then? Who or what is a human being? Simply put it’s the information contained and continually altered within the human body. The intrinsically informational nature of human identity is pretty much what the various religions so piously call a soul. Physicality does influence that informational nature but does not define it. Whether you have your own heart, someone else’s or an artificial one, your conscious self can really care less; all that a heart transplant changes is that you’re liable to treat the new one with greater care and possibly gain a greater appreciation of life. Informational identity of humans is neither spatially nor temporally instantaneous, rather it is spread through the space-time continuum. Consider this hypothetical case as an instance: a couple plans to have a child, they get a house, start saving resources for its upbringing, take care of themselves better in order to conceive easier at a time they’re ready, they even plan a room and have gender dependent names picked out. To a large extent their life histories, education, and experiences will be transferred to the offspring. So will a plethora of other insights and creations produced by mankind over Millennia. In effect the information that will constitute the identity of the new human being is present and defines that being even before his/her/its physical birth. Then entire life of a human being is filled with continuous change based on the interaction with the world outside of the conscious self (input and output of information) and information processing and retention (thought, dreaming, hallucinating, daydreaming, fantasizing and memory formation). That information spreads to other humans through various forms of interaction and is then carried on even further by physical objects or energy which retain and propagate information - or part of that human informational identity. Needless to say the information created and disseminated by the human identity does not terminate upon the death of the human body - whatever interaction there was during life - remains: in memory of those affected and material/energy altered through the existence of that particular human identity. Information is degraded, erased and altered over time but it lasts far longer than the life span of the physiological engine that allows for its processing during conscious life. (Some last longer than others… Sir Isaac Newton will probably live on for as long humans buzz about in their present physical form but a newborn in a Hiroshima hospital born just prior to Monday, August 6, 1945, 8:15 AM hasn’t left much of a mark, especially if the entire family got wiped out along with him). Now this spacial and temporal distribution of human identity goes against what we normally think of as ourselves. We’ve generally come to incorrectly identify ourselves as the chimera of a 100 trillion microbes and 10 trillion cells that make up our bodies, or if we feel a bit more philosophical about it we’ll vaguely place ourselves somewhere within the framework of our brains. An artist may identify with a painting as a part of herself, a scientist may be identified by a formula named after him by others, but generally the masons who built the pyramids didn’t think that their work will hold their informational nature for 5000 years after their physical death. Humans at their most basic intrinsic identity are information, what’s more that information can be copied and teleported. I’ve made a quantum leap in my argument flow here, but bear with me and I’ll illustrate with an analogy. NASA is sending a robot to ISS for a mission and plans to control it remotely if I’m not mistaken. Now imagine that robot has artificial intelligence and is self aware. It is then possible to copy the content of the entire robot brain contents (or any portion thereof) - and transfer - by whatever means - direct cable connection, wireless, by placing it on a storage device and uploading to another robot later etc. In effect a mind transfer is possible - so is telepathy - if two or more robots have say… a wireless connection. On a more rudimentary level humans have been doing this through the use of language and all the means and media used to propagate and exchange information, but copying the entire contents of human identity and posting it in an alternate framework like another body, a robot avatar, a virtual reality computer generated world… that’s a whole new game altogether. Mind uploading is not a new concept and has been discussed extensively. The definition of human identity as presented here IS NOVEL and on the surface would go against what all the world’s religions propagate as their various ideas of abiogenesis, cosmogony, cosmology, and eschatology but I have a compromised solution that can satisfy all of them. What we can do is transfer their minds to virtual reality worlds of their choice - in agreement to their wishful mystical religious fantasies. You can burn in hell for eternity if you like, or have a few dozen virgins in your virtual haven… whatever strikes your fancy. Me being a practical rational being, what I’d like is the ability to travel to anywhere in the observable Universe. Ah, yes the universe. We are one you know - I/it/we are self aware consciousness gloriously marveling and experiencing my/its/our own existence! I will refrain from dwelling on the point of my/its/our pandemic multi-dimensionality and get to the concrete idea: interstellar and intergalactic travel is physically possible through mind teleportation (NO, off course I don’t think it is moral to take another conscious physical being’s body as a host!) into a cloned or artificially made host body sent to the desired destination by slower means (in effect one can be in many places in the Universe simultaneously and combine into one conscious self through mind sharing by the use of information/energy teleportation).*
Comments
(1.) Physically netting out the objects big and small from orbit or kinetically kicking them into the Earth’s atmosphere so they’ll burn up or go for a dip in the ocean.
(2.) Shooting them and vaporizing with high power space based energy weapon (laser)
(3.) Collection of junk through a space garbage truck (a) for metallic junk that can be pulled in through generation of a strong magnetic field (b) for all junk that has mass through a generation of a gravitational field
Personally I think option 3b is the best way to go. I believe the understanding of physics involved should be acquired within a couple years. But since (3.b) is not a go right away… putting something in orbit that does 1,2, and (3.a) would be a good idea.
It occurred to me that some may find it scientific heresy to speak of a gravity “field” since the accepted idea of gravity is that it is created through the warping of space time. In my defense, I’d like to post something the ESA has looked into:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GSP/SEM0L6OVGJE_0.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14145045
April 18th, 2011 at 2:36 am
Who is reading my mind?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19890522,00.html
I was just mentally going over the events in Panama…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
and had an idea to post the bloodied white shirt of a man (well, the shirt is not the issue, the man who wore it IS, he was being beaten and bloodied for political opposition to Noriega). I think the point in the mental analogy was that Qaddafi exit strategy should lead him in the same direction as the Panamanian dictator: to prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega
Key things to note:
https://www.ted.com/talks/thandie_newton_embracing_otherness_embracing_myself
a) self - or intrinsic informational identity of a human being is in constant flux - it continually changes and the perception of self changes
b) oneness - or universal human identity must be recognized by individuals and humane interaction between identities on interpersonal level must be present for there to exist a non-aggressive, non-violent harmonious global consciousness as exhibited by a planetary peaceful human society
1. They exist.
2. Diversity is genetic and skin color is not a factor, notably most Caucasians universally aim to and turn brown in the summer, even if we're entirely pale sickly white. Often this is a cognitive effort, sometimes a significant expense is undergone to change skin color to a darker tone.
3. "In biological taxonomy, race is an informal rank in the taxonomic hierarchy, below the level of subspecies." Humans are a species that exhibit such diversity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_(biology)
Comments on self:
- The body mechanics of all modern humans are very similar, however for particular tasks kinesiology is key and a result of genetic predisposition. For instance you can't be an NBA center if you're 6 feet tall or under. You can't be a ballerina with disproportionally short limbs of a dwarf. This of course is NOT race dependent.
- for a person to be a successful ballerina for instance, the human body requires very specific limb lengths and proportions to physically perform in ballet; the self, or the informational identity within the body, is independent of that. One can mentally perform all these tasks in one's head, regardless of body type.
- visualization and cognition can translate to manipulation of objects or devices with the 'self' of the mind (or the informational self) to artificial limbs, robotics not connected to the individual's body at all, computing devices or virtual and augmented reality environments.
- the self or a self image is pretty much 'healed' by modern day avatar multiplayer games were individual characters are chosen and perform in a 3-D virtual world that is 'living' and is inhabited by real humans; nobody cares who is behind the controls in World of Warcraft, all that matters is how you perform, males can play female characters and vice versa, as well as non human ones; this also translates well to other venues where the body movements of the players are mirrored by a game character.
- regardless of interface, the self is informational in nature and the body is but a vehicle; mind transfer and storage with holographic virtual living, cyborg and robotic solutions will further solidify the idea that humans are essentially informational 'telepathic' beings inside biological bodies.
The biological bodies are impermanent, by virtue of present DNA structure the human biological bodies have built in obsolescence due to talomere shortening which results in death at 140 years old or under.
Maybe someone should design a virtual dancing studio were participants can learn to perform at top level regardless of body type, weight, health condition or limb length and do so using their minds alone.
https://www.ted.com/talks/thandie_newton_embracing_otherness_embracing_myself