Who are you ?

[moof]

Something to Think about.

" Respectfully offered for your consideration "

Who are you ?

What are you ?

Where are you ?

How sure are you ?

Bring your imagination and think about what you would do
if your future gave you this choice.

Imagine if you will a time in your distant future
when you are at the very end of this mortal coil.

Your time is nearly at an end after a satisfying long life.
The doctor tells you what you already know,
your aged body has done it's job well but in a few hours maybe a day at most
you will doze off peacefully and never wake again.

Your family and friends have gathered around and all have said their goodbyes.

In this future moment you now have a decision to make.
Technology has made many advances between now and this future time.
A process has been developed that will allow all of your brain's information,
memories and capabilities to be transferred into a computer type device
that will leave you self aware and in a state of conscienceness
very much like the one you are in at this very moment
"seeing" this screen and "communicating" to it from an input device
similar to the way the keyboard or mouse in front of you does now.
You are not the first person to accept or decline this process.
The process is safe and has never failed.
The process does not affect your body's orginal time of expiration.
People who undergo the process may opt out at any future time.
The process does not promise immortality but no one has yet
been lost from the process once they have entered into it.
The process does not protect those who have undergone it from
any of the more drastic accidents that regular people are subject to.
Major Blackouts, fire, earthquakes and other natural disasters
are still capable of resulting in the big sleep for people
in the process if their particular hardware happens to get damaged.

The only two senses you are aware of are sight and hearing although
people have reported the "sensation" of all 5 senses during infrequent
and brief periods of what are best decribed as dreams.

So here is your choice. Do you .....

Undergo the process and spend some additional time interacting on planet Earth.

Decline the process and pass peacefully into whatever the unknown reality happens to be ?

There is no riddle or trick here, no right or wrong answer,
no larger issues to consider, no answer is required at all.

It is merely the musing about one possibility that could one day be available
in a future that may not be as implausible or as far off as some might think.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. peacefully pass

i think we live too long anyway

[pagerbear]

2. I'm nobody! Who are you?

Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They ’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody! 5
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

[saracat]

3. I'd do it.

I'd undergo the process.Known versus unknown et all.

[mac56]

4. who-hoo, who-hoo... I really wanna know!

:evilgrin:

[Fenris]

5. Aw who the fuck are you?!

:D

[mac56]

7. I woke up in a Soho doorway

A policeman knew my name...

[Fenris]

8. He said 'You can go sleep at home tonight

If you can get up and walk away'

[sus]

6. I am Spartacus. I led you here.

GEEZ.. don't you REMEMBER?? do you have ALTZHEIMERS or something?

[Squeech]

9. The Winter Market

Short story by William Gibson, in the collection called Burning Chrome. The plot involves a young woman who has two characteristics: she's a terrific dreamer, in a society where dreams can be recorded and sold like pop records, and she has a totally crippling muscle disease. She makes a "hit record" called Kings of Sleep, and earns enough money on it to have herself uploaded to a mainframe. I'd do the same, if I were in her massively dysfunctional shoes.

But there's another story-- and I'm sorry to space out on the title and author. The premise here is, there was this great pianist who has died-- but his management has managed to preserve his corpse and re-animate it at intervals, to give concerts. At such times the pianist is self-aware, but believes that his body is performing by muscle memory, making automaton music that has nothing to do with his mind or heart. He persuades a fan to destroy his body so as to end the facade he believes himself to be. There's something to be said for that view too.

[moof]

10. Squeech, you gave not spaced out at all, you are the first

to show any awareness of the concepts that this process would bring into play.
It seems most people either don't get it or juxt don't care to discuss it.
No one at another board was willing or able to discuss thw possibilty
that what they belive themselves to be also contains there " soul "
be cause to a person they all choose to die.

Never got anyone to discuss it but it is stunning that people are not
willing to consider that a " soul " may be separate from consciousness when they are not aware of a " soul " now.

It really seems like a no brainer LOL but still why choose to die it just seems odd, what is gained by dieing or what is lost be being processed.

[Squeech]

11. Hello Mister Soul, I have dropped by to pick up a reason

It's a real good question, certainly.

I think that I would opt for the electronic preservation myself, since it would apparently allow me to continue to participate in at least three of my favorite activities: listening to music (you said hearing was possible), reading, and thinking.

Except: my reasons for listening to music, reading, and thinking include the notion that I get to make judgments about the books and the music. And it seems to me that the judgment process is personal, certainly emotional, and probably has some bearing on this "soul" concept. What happens if, after the upload, I can still *hear* whatever music I want, but it doesn't *move* me? (And no, it's not because I like to dance, because I really don't and can't.)

If, as an electronic avatar of Squeech, I can no longer tell the difference between Ray Charles and John Tesh, that's really gonna be a disappointment. Clearly, further research is needed.

Hope this helps.

[moof]

13. The concept was that whatever made you you would be....

as you sit in front of your screen now. The only abilities you give up
are waking sensations of touch, taste and smell. your sight and hearing are only limited to what you can now see and hear over your computer. All of your emotions and thinking are only impacted to the degree they must now be limited to expression thru your remaining access to the real world.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. I'd let go of life here

I'm not afraid of death. Sometimes I even look forward to it, though I'd not provoke its untimely occurrence.

I'm convinced that death is most difficult for those loved ones who outlive the deceased.