Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!geneva.rutgers.edu!christian From: wpg@mendel.acc.virginia.edu (William Gardner) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: immortality in this life? Message-ID: Date: 26 Jun 89 05:44:37 GMT Sender: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu Lines: 26 Approved: hedrick@geneva.rutgers.edu I would like to pose a new question to this group. Two recent book have speculated on the possibilities of achieving immortality through technological means. They are _Engines_of_creation_, by E. Drexler (1986, Doubleday) and _Mind_children_, by H. Moravec (1988, Harvard U. Press). Both are trying to anticipate consequences of continuing exponential increases in miniaturization and computational power. Drexler speculates that intelligent machines at the scale of a cell combined with an understanding of the human genome and neurology will allow us to conquer disease and aging. Moravec anticipates the development of symbiotic relationships between human minds and computers, leading eventually to a `downloading' of minds from brains to computers. If nothing else, this makes enteraining reading. I have _no_ idea whether any of this is remotely plausible, and I'm sure this isn't the group to debate the technical merits of either thesis. What I would like to ask all of you is: Supposing some kind of technological immortality were possible, what relationship, if any, would it have to Christian salvation? There is a sense in which this question is hideously frivolous -- the world is full of dying. But I think that the question will be posed anyway, after a few more orders of magnitudes increase in computing power, and then we will have to have answers. [][][][][][][][][][][] William Gardner [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] [] /_ o / / Department of Psychology wpg@virginia.edu [] [] /__) / / / University of Virginia 804-924-0669 [] [][][][][][][][][] Charlottesville, VA 22903 FAX: 804-924-7185 [][]