i FOREVER FOR ALL ii iii FOREVER FOR ALL MORAL PHILOSOPHY, CRYONICS, AND THE SCIENTIFIC PROSPECTS FOR IMMORTALITY R. Michael Perry © 2000 by R. Michael Perry. All rights reserved. Forever For All: Moral Philosophy, Cryonics, and the Scientific Prospects for Immortality Copyright © 2000 R. Michael Perry All rights reserved. Universal Publishers USA • 2000 ISBN: 1-58112-724-3 www.upublish.com/books/perry.htm v CONTENTS List of Illustrations ..............................................................................ix Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 1. Heaven by Design ............................................................................ 7 The Paranormal versus the Scientific .......................................... 12 Apocalypse, Singularity, and Immortalization ............................ 17 Immortality in Thought and Practice........................................... 22 2. A Brief History of Immortalism ..................................................... 28 Immortality through Progress ...................................................... 30 Technological Optimism and Cryonics ....................................... 36 Beyond Cryonics ......................................................................... 44 Summary of Immortalist Philosophies ........................................ 48 3. A Matter of Attitude........................................................................ 51 Knowledge of Mortality and Management of Terror .................. 53 Characteristics of Cryonicists...................................................... 59 Toward a Change in Attitudes ..................................................... 61 Cryonics Acceptance: a Hypothetical Case................................. 65 A Future of Wonder ..................................................................... 69 4. A Philosophical System .................................................................. 74 Reductionism, Materialism, and the Problem of Survival .......... 78 Physical versus Psychological Reductionism.............................. 81 Psychological Connectedness versus Continuity ........................ 85 The Functionalist Viewpoint ....................................................... 87 Personal Identity and Destiny...................................................... 89 Yuai, Resurrection, and the Multiverse ....................................... 91 Shorter-Term Also Important ...................................................... 97 5. Some Scientific Perspectives ....................................................... 101 Reproducibility versus Unpredictability.................................... 102 The Two-Slit Experiment .......................................................... 108 The Riddle of Quantum Reality ................................................ 111 Relativity and the Problem of Locality ..................................... 113 Quantum Interpretations and Locality ....................................... 118 The Aspect Experiment and Many-Worlds ............................... 122 More on Alternatives to Many-Worlds ...................................... 132 A Telling Experiment? ............................................................... 134 6. Unboundedness............................................................................. 138 History: Process versus Description .......................................... 139 vi What Are the Possible Histories? .............................................. 142 The Plausibility of Unboundedness ........................................... 147 Our Existence As Extraordinary Evidence ................................ 153 7. Interchangeability ......................................................................... 158 A Difficult Problem: Life after Death ....................................... 159 Interchangeability in Physics..................................................... 167 Interchangeability As Applied to Persons ................................. 170 Opposition, Rebuttal, and Illustrations ...................................... 174 Underlying and Observer Reality .............................................. 178 The UI Assumptions .................................................................. 181 The Problem of Actualization.................................................... 184 Person, Brain, and Mind ............................................................ 188 8. The Digital Substrate .................................................................... 190 The Principle of Large Quantity ................................................ 191 Strong AI and Materialism ........................................................ 194 Mind As a Digital Phenomenon ................................................ 197 Information and Personal Survival ............................................ 201 Information, Understanding, and Reality As a Whole .............. 203 The Material World As Information .......................................... 207 Digital Systems and Their Powers ............................................ 210 Machines with Universal Powers .............................................. 213 Physical Systems As Digital Mechanisms ................................ 219 Quantum Devices and Digital Consciousness ........................... 221 Answering Objections: the Chinese Room Experiment ............ 226 The Gödel Incompleteness Theorem ......................................... 229 A Simple Rebuttal...................................................................... 234 Consequences of the Digital Model .......................................... 238 The Chinese Room Revisited .................................................... 239 Modeling Time .......................................................................... 242 Further Thoughts on Consciousness and Strong AI .................. 243 9. Nanotechnology: Gateway to the Future ...................................... 247 Progress in Nanotechnology ...................................................... 249 Difficulties and Objections ........................................................ 257 Expectations, Evidence, and Projections ................................... 262 Benefits from Nanotechnology.................................................. 266 10. The Theological Issue................................................................. 272 Atheism with a Concept of Divinity.......................................... 279 Cosmological and Ontological Arguments ................................ 283 World and Eternal Happiness without a God ............................ 287 Our Immense Responsibilities .................................................. 295 Yuai and Religion ...................................................................... 298 vii 11. Will the Good Prevail? ............................................................... 305 An Investigation of Awakening ................................................. 309 A World Not Perfect but Perfecting........................................... 315 Free Will, Determinism, and Progress ...................................... 317 The Doomsday Argument and the Fermi Paradox .................... 321 Meeting Other Challenges ......................................................... 328 12. Resurrection................................................................................ 331 The Afterlife: Doubt and Rational Hope ................................... 333 Requirements for a Resurrection ............................................... 338 Person-Segments and Person-Stages ......................................... 340 The Problem of Identity............................................................. 342 Onticity ...................................................................................... 345 Ontic Robustness, Dreaming, and Past Lives ........................... 348 Heaven Despite Hardships ........................................................ 352 13. Biostasis As the Better Way ....................................................... 355 A Problem of Anticipation ......................................................... 357 Advantages of Historical Ties ................................................... 360 Addressing Some Objections .................................................... 365 Attributes to Aim For................................................................. 371 A Moral Argument ..................................................................... 374 14. Immortality ................................................................................. 380 Personhood ................................................................................ 382 Requirements for Immortality ................................................... 385 Why Immortality Is Important .................................................. 391 Achieving Enontic Immortality ................................................. 394 Cosmological Perspectives ........................................................ 399 Coping with the Mysterious Universe ....................................... 403 15. The Philosophy of Assurance ..................................................... 412 The Problem of Forgetting and the Ideal Self ........................... 414 Continuity and Causality Issues ................................................ 422 More on Memory Problems....................................................... 428 Avenues