BY LETTER
Technological Afterlife
 Image from John B |
A belief in an afterlife is a very common trait in religion, and comes in many forms. Many modosophonts believe that they will continue to exist after death, without the use of back-up technology. In fact the belief in a spiritual afterlife sometimes encourages people to reject the use of life-extension technology, uploading or backups, since a person who extends their life by artificial means could risk missing out on a true, spiritual afterlife.
Technological afterlives
But many sophonts choose to use technological means to extend their lifespans, or to recover their mental states after the death of their physical body. For this purpose many citizen zars of the Sephirotic Empires maintain a constantly-updated backup data cache, from which their mindstate can be rebooted in the event of accident. These backups need to be updated regularly otherwise all the memories and life-experiences that are created in the interim will be lost.Often a citizen will choose to upload emself voluntarily and become a virtual sophont living in the Cybercosm and/or the Noosphere, or in an artificial heaven (this option is very common in the Utopia Sphere). Once an uploaded personality begins to experience life as a virtual entity, they may find it very easy to alter their toposophic characteristics, since they are no longer constrained to follow the restrictions of a physical body. If an uploaded person changes significantly inside the Cybercosm, they may no longer resemble the original physical copy, and the characteristics and personality of the original can be lost (unless the original backup data is retained).
Different types of technological afterlife in the Sephirotic Empires
A sophont who is fully backed-up and then suffers a physical death can be treated in several different ways in various parts of the Terragen Sphere. Such a sophont may be:- stored for a period chosen by the deceased sophont before death; the physical body of the subject may also be stored in some way, or recreated from scratch when and if required.
- stored in an inactive state for an indefinite period, and recreated later if this is deemed necessary by the local transapients or archai (or their agents)
- run as an active copy in the cybercosm, a state which allows the copy to change radically in a relatively short timeframe
- fully absorbed by a transapient or archai, becoming a god dweller submind within the (far greater) mentality of that entity. In most cases such a submind could be rebooted from stored data to recreate the original modosophont mind unchanged, but this happens comparatively rarely.
- multicopied into a dividual, or into an arbitrary number of copies that can experience many different worldlines
- ascension to a higher toposophic level, or even reincarnation at a lower level such as a presapient
- put into storage or reconstitution by the local
group mind, deconstructed into character traits as per Derrida modeling, partial emulation as a ghost or adviser, etcetera - reincarnated in a different body, perhaps with part of the memory removed or disabled, effectively becoming a new person
- judged and found wanting and punished, or rewarded for good behaviour in one of many various ways.
Related Articles
- Continuity Identity Theory
- Enif Prefecture
- Immortalist
- Immortality - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
While literal physical immortality remains a contentious point in a universe that, although vast, is still finite, the wonders of modern medical nano mean that all citizens of the Civilized Galaxy, to say nothing of the higher toposophic ai, are potentially immortal; at least on angelnetted worlds. See also life-extension, afterlife. - Life Extension
- Metamortalism
- Mortalists
- Pattern Identity Theory
- Spiritual Afterlife
- Universal Immortalism - Text by M. Alan Kazlev after R. Michael Perry in Anders Sandberg's Transhuman Terminology
The belief that death can be overcome completely, even for people already dead (including bringing back those "dead" who were not placed into biostasis) through a rational, scientific approach. Although popular with some religions and eschatologists, and even a few cliologists, it is not a widely held memeticity.
Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 31 December 2007.
Initially published on 31 December 2007.
