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I posted this somewhere else but im gonna post it here in case anyone else cares about Solipsism.
what if an asteroid struck the earth killing everyone years ago, and we're alive in a simulated reality and we’ve all been put here unaware that the earth has ended so we don’t panic, and we will just live out time for however long until our solar panels stop working (this generally erases the problem of other minds in a computer (NPC?) sense)
but you have to ask, when the solar panels stop working what would happen? would the virtual world we inhabit just cease to exist... somehow? what would happen to us at that point, would be able to continue to exist in some form or if we would simply be terminated?
for the case of the scenario lets just assume it's AI and not actual mind uploading. for an AI, would it be able to interpret death? when it "dies", would it be like nothing ever happened or will it no longer be able to interact with the world or receive inputs from its environment, and understand that?
it is possible that the computer could interpret death--like some impossible version of a human afterlife--but its completely unclear, at least to me, whether the computer would have the ability to understand or conceptualize death in the same way that humans do
back to the scenario of minds put in a computer, they might have programmed in a warning for us all -- or maybe they would stick to preferring that we wouldn’t have to know. when you hunt an animal, you try and kill it right away before it can understand what has happened to it, to make its suffering short lived, but how would this apply to a digital, sentient lifeform, without the sense of a natural death? i guess this asks the question of; could a reality within a mind exist within a virtual mind, and if the mind is separate from the biology of the brain (like many believe), could that mind continue if the (again completely virtual) mind ends?
or you could just say 'wha wha its a computer it just turns off >:(' which makes more sense
all in all there is no way to answer this since just as we don't know what happens after our perceived physical death, we cannot look into the the mind of a sentient virtual death. the question of whether a digital, sentient lifeform can experience death in the same way as a human is wholly uncertain, so none of this can truly be answered.
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Ghostly Menace
Whoa. That's genuinely such a cool way of thinking. I've never heard of solipsism before.
To attempt to answer you questions/debate (all respectful of course)...
There has been scientific evidence that suggests that the psychedelic drug, DMT, is naturally being made and stored within our bodies as well as other animals and plants. If you're unaware what DMT is, let me try to break it down a bit. DMT's scientific name is N,N-Dimethyltryptamine, and when taken with the intent of getting high, it gives the user a very intense trip. Users will often experience an out-of-body high (seeing and speaking with sentient life-forms, not from this planet) and feel as though the world and time is moving at an intense, fast pace. When someone uses DMT to get high, they access an extremely small portion of their body's DMT. Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that DMT is released from our brains naturally when we die. So what would happen if our entire DMT storage was released upon death?
I like to theorize that it would feel like an eternity to the individual even though in reality, it's only mere seconds. Based on their religious, or non-religious beliefs, they could experience a "heaven" or "hell" of their mind's own making. If they lived a life full of regret, haven't dealt with trauma, etc. they could theoretically be trapped in their own, personal "hell." But if they've lived a fulfilled life, made peace with their symbolic demons, etc. they would experience a blissful "heaven."
As far as your sentient-life AI after human death question, I feel like it would be 100% possible for that to happen. It might be quick and short-lived in real time, but it could possibly feel like an eternity for the individual. If we were able to manipulate the DMT that's released once we die, I have no doubt that we could somehow transfer someone's conscious into the cloud. Of course, we're no where near something like that, and probably won't see anything like that during our lifetime. But it's definitely a possibility for the future. There would be hella moral and ethical issues, but it could be possible.
With AI's being able to understand death, I think they would, depending on how they evolve over time. I don't think any AI's in today's time would be able to understand that and show genuine sympathy aside from what's programmed, but in the future it could be a possibility. AI's could eventually read and replicate human emotion, and I assume that they would possibly fear death or being reset based on what they've grown to understand. I mean, look at Wall-E. He able to grow and change past his program and was willing to robotically die for the Earth.
I think you're on to something, and most of what you said could very well be true in the years to come. If you're interested in doing a bit of research, there are some really good articles about DMT and near death experiences if you feel like tackling the afterlife question. For sentient life, I recommend watching the 1995 anime film Ghost in the Shell, as well as Akira (1988).
I would also like to point out that I do not condone the use of drugs. I just find the psychology behind it fascinating. It's 3am and I need some sleep, so sorry if I didn't make any sense lmao. Good luck on your pursuit of the unknown! (:
There is this theory in Christian circles that if you see Jesus as just a philosopher and his philosophy as a way to radically change your way of life then some stuff starts to make sense. For instance baptism if done in an older age, like what they used to do in the proto-christian communities, is basically the first time you die because you are being reborn spiritually and since you have died once you can't die a second time, can you? So by extension you will live forever.
In a spiritual way.
Now the part about releasing DMT before you die could explain the near death high some people experience.
The part about AI I don't think is that necessary.
by ArelGunay; ; Report