Cloning and Immortality

[Hazard]

http://www.ted.com/talks/juan_enriquez_will_our_kids_be_a_different_species.html

Juan Enriquez suggests that in the not so distant future, we may be able to not only clone humans but to transfer our memories into those cloned bodies, thus allowing us to live forever. However, even if we develop this technology I don't think it will work and here is why:

I'm not spiritual so I don't believe in the spirit or the soul or anything like that, but I think that cloning oneself and transferring all your memories would only server to create a twin brother or sister, a copy of yourself, but not yourself. I don't think that you will wake up to be in a new body. I'd just be a second "you" walking around and talking with all your memories.

This leads me to consider interesting questions. If there is no soul, what is the "me" that sees what my eyes see and thinks what my brain thinks? Am I just the some of my biological parts? But who is the "who" that wakes up every morning? These questions are easier for me to understand when I see them in the light of the above mentioned "cloning experiment". The clone would think its me. It would have all my memories, feelings, etc. But I would still be me too. I couldn't wake up in his body.

This leads me to believe that if there is no soul, no essence that IS the self, then I act and think as the result of the construct that biologically is me at any given moment. I could hypothetically be the clone right now and not know it because I have all the memories of the original. I might only be 1 day old and there is no way for me to know for sure because when I woke up I had all the memories of years before.

Even though I don't believe in the soul, I still feel like there is something more. Why am I me and not somebody else if I am just brain waves? Who is the ME that experiences my experiences? Food for thought...

Thoughts?

[BaalChatzaf]

I'm not spiritual so I don't believe in the spirit or the soul or anything like that, but I think that cloning oneself and transferring all your memories would only server to create a twin brother or sister, a copy of yourself, but not yourself. I don't think that you will wake up to be in a new body. I'd just be a second "you" walking around and talking with all your memories.

See Robert Nozick -Philosophical Explanations-. He has a chapter on this very subject, duplication of selves.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Dglgmut]

Unless we are our memories and there is only one source of unlimited awareness.

But seriously, this topic is just too confusing. I've thought a lot about it, but in reality we have to deal with the fact that we are essentially our brains. We think; without our brains, we couldn't... and so our most basic function of existence is dependent on the brain.

If you think of consciousness as simply receiving and sending information, there is no good answer to what exactly it is.

Consciousness is reactive. Incoming information is more fundamental--awareness--than what it does. We experience before we act, and even if we could act without experiencing, that would not be consciousness.

When I move my hand to type this, the initiation of the action starts from my consciousness, because it's deliberate. However, I could not control my hands without tons of incoming information. So our outgoing signals are very few relative our incoming.

If you look at consciousness as simply sending and receiving, it could very well lead to a determinist conclusion. If consciousness is 100% reactive, then determinism is a law.

However, the difference between consciousness and awareness is memory. We have the ability to make choices because we have the capacity to compare experiences without actually having to experience them in the moment. We cannot simultaneously compare memories of sensations, but we can compare the short form evaluations of those experiences stored in our memory.

So it comes down to whether you believe your nature is part of you, or if it is alien to you. I accept my nature as me, and so, when I act on my nature, I am not being controlled by outside forces... I am being controlled by me.

I know this post was a mess but it's early and I was just retrieving thoughts on this as my brain spit them up.

[Brant Gaede]

No, the basic functions are dependant on the autonomic nervous system. This is why people have survived for decades in comas.

--Brant

[Dglgmut]

We're talking about consciousness, yes? I don't know what level of consciousness people retain while in a coma, if any, but if they have no awareness what-so-ever, they are not conscious, and if they have any awareness, it is received information.