Scientifically Plausible Reincarnation?
Is it scientifically plausible for reincarnation to exist?
When I think of reincarnation I am thinking of the following:
- Memories, personality, biases, opinions and feelings carry over from one life to the next
- I am NOT thinking about an afterlife, as in returning to life as a better or worse kind of creature.
Can a human mind be transferred to a new generation and how would it function? Feel free to identify science that may not exist yet, but is plausible. This doesn't need to be common practice in my universe, just possible.
Please limit your answer to a single plausible solution, not a list of potential ideas, and include the science or pseudo-science that would make it plausible.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/2776. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I think the most scientifically plausible method available to us with what we know is one that has been mentioned: use computers. However, the tech required is still out of our current range, so if you want something applicable now I think you're out of luck.
The basic idea goes like this: someone dies, and you upload a copy of their entire life onto some server. You then download it and apply it to a newborn baby, who remembers the memories provided as their own.
Problem number 1 with this is the upload. Brains are like CMOS memory, which requires charge input to remember its data. If you shut a brain down, its electrical power goes off, and all the data is lost.
I propose to fix that with some more futuristic (though not completely unimaginable - we're getting pretty close to it) technology. When babies are born, your country's vaccination program should include death insurance: you have a microcomputer implanted in you. It monitors, records, and saves: monitors your vital signs, physical conditions and immune status, records and interprets your brain activity, and does regular cloud backups. If it detects your vital signs as too low to possibly support life, it could use some of its charge to power the brain for a while (this is the really tricky bit - we don't know how the charges in the brain work), take a final system image, and upload it.
I can see fixes for a number of the problems with this, actually:
- Storage requirements - we're already assuming futuristic tech, so you can assume greater storage densities too.
- Unit running out of power - wireless charging is well on the way to becoming reality; just add infrastructure. You could also sap power from your host human, though that's more dangerous.
- No Internet connection - store the information locally as well. This is also the purpose of the backups: if the final image doesn't make it, at least some things will still be there.
- Not enough neuroscience - we are developing interpretation of brain signals now, so add on however many extra years of development and boom you have enough neuroscience.
Scientifically, all of this development is possible: none of this contravenes the limits of reality or the laws of nature, so should be possible. It's also the most easily understandable by modern humans: we know lots about computer tech, so developments of it will be easier to pick up.
0 comment threads
0 comment threads