YouTube videos has become a regular source of entertainment for me these days. I don't currently have a TV set hooked up here and couldn't afford the outrageous cable bill to get the full experience anyway. These days, the model is shifting to different internet streaming sites, including Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
I
do try to support the content creators that I watch on YouTube by
viewing the ads unless they drone on for longer than 2 minutes. In this
case, a commercial came on for a a new series that will stream on Amazon
Prime. Oftentimes, these advertisements for movies and new series peak
my interest. If it's within my budget, I'll even check some of that
stuff out. This commercial showed a new series called Upload.
I'm
aware of the transhumanist movement we have in the world today. Some
people will say it doesn't exist. Some will say that it's for the
betterment of mankind. I am suspicious and skeptical of the ways that
they want to integrate technology into our everyday lives, and I tend to
think it's not necessarily a good thing. It doesn't mean it's all bad,
but I believe a lot of it isn't really necessary. By saying that, I'm
sure I'll manage to upset a few people who believe in all of this stuff.
I
am of the belief that things that have been pushed by people like Ray
Kurzweil will become more a part of our reality in the years to come.
Integrating technology with biology will become a thing. Artificial
Intelligence will become smarter, and this will result in mankind
actually having meaningful conversations, friendships and even
relationships with AI one day. This is sort of illustrated in a rather
entertaining movie with Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson called
Her.
In this particular series, a
man is injured in a crash, and he has a choice to make. This is set
sometime in the future, and he can go into surgery or have his essence
uploaded into a virtual afterlife. It would be catered to what he wants
for his eternity. I'm a little bit interested in what people might think
about this sort of future and how it's portrayed, but making this part
of our reality doesn't appeal to me at all. I'm not interested in having
somebody create my ideal existence in the reality we live in now as my
eternity.
I believe this sort of
thing is based on our fears about what's next. I believe the more people
are attached to this plane of existence and their possessions, the more
they will have a fear of the unknown. What happens after we die? I'm
sure there are people who have no faith that we continue on beyond this
life, and the more afraid they are of that fact, the more they would
want to push for this sort of technology to happen. Could this become a
real thing in the future? When? 50 years from now? 100 years?
I
know there are people working on this sort of technology, because you
can read articles on the subject. People are paying for the opportunity
to be uploaded into a computer to live on from there. Whether the
technology exists or not, they are hoping that this is possible. Some
will maintain that some sort of procedure is possible. They will say
that it's not actually you but a computer's representation of you that
in some respects might even fool people into thinking it is you.
However, they claim that you will actually die when the procedure
happens.
Consider the possibility
that you don't die. I am a believer in God or a Creator who made us
all. We are not a cosmic accident, and the very fact that we can
communicate our hopes and dreams and experience the world around us is a
miracle in itself. I won't attribute that to a specific religion as I
believe religion serves the negative of dividing the people just as much
as some of the good that it does such as helping the less fortunate.
Suffice it to say, I'm a believer that we go on into a whole new
existence that we may not understand from here to there.
Consider
that the procedure to upload your essence or your soul into a computer
is possible. You are dividing yourself from the Creator at that point,
and you're also allowing your soul to be controlled in some respect by
whoever it is that creates the computer program. Who might that be?
Could that be the devil or whatever you want to call it? Could it be the
force that seeks to control everything on planet Earth, and could
herding as many souls as possible into a computer program be part of
their grand plan?
I'm okay with
dying and leaving this world behind. Survival instinct will surely kick
in and bring me a little bit of fear, but I know I will get past that
and embrace what comes next. Others I have known and loved have done the
same. I have faith that it's not the end, but what if it does end with
my death and there is nothing beyond that? Would it hurt me? I simply
won't feel or know anything at that point. It will be into the void of
nothingness for me, and I will no longer exist.
However,
if my faith and belief is correct, I'll be going to another place
beyond this. I'd rather go there than into some sort of fake existence
created by man in the hopes of maintaining a type of reality that I know
already. Considering what mankind does to each other in this society,
I've come to believe that it doesn't really matter in the bigger scheme
of the universe. We are more than we can even begin to realize as we
live our lives here, but we are meant to learn more in the next life.
As
a series idea, Upload has much potential for entertainment. Is this
person communicating with other actual souls in the computer or are they
in their own specific reality with AI communicating with them? Can they
communicate with the outside world? From the commercial, it appears
that this is the case. It will probably interest some people, and it
could also inspire some meaningful conversation, just as the movie Her
did when it came out. I might be interested in watching this show, but
the actual reality that it proposes doesn't appeal to me at all.
