What exactly is transcendence? Basically, it’s uploading one’s consciousness to a computer, something Kurzweill says will be possible by mid-century, and on which scientists are now feverishly working.
As artificial intelligence researcher Will Caster, played by Johnny Depp explains, “Once online, a sentient machine will quickly overcome the limits of biology. Its analytical power will be greater than the collective intelligence of every person born in the history of the world. Imagine such an entity with the full range of emotions, even self-awareness."
Will is mortally wounded by anti-technology terrorists. His loving wife and professional partner, Evelyn, played by Rebecca Hall, successfully copies and uploads his biological, actual intelligence into a computer before he dies.
Now interesting questions arise. Is that really Will in the computer? Was his consciousness and his soul uploaded? Should we be worried about creating something like this?
What appears to be Will, or a duplicate of Will, evolves into a super-intelligent, self-aware computer entity, gains access to the Internet, builds a huge underground data center in the desert, and uses nano-computers as building blocks for everything from solar cells to human drone “hybrids” who do his bidding.
He sees himself as doing good for humanity and the planet, but one character says he is “an unnatural abomination and threat to humanity.” Will basically is immortal and omniscient, unless his enemies can find a way to unplug him. You’ll have to see the movie to find out.
Inventor, author and futurist Kurzweill has popularized the ideas of "Transcendent Man" and "The Singularity." He sees computers becoming exponentially more intelligent and believes we’re approaching a point where computers will become more intelligent than humans. Then our bodies, minds and civilization--all of humanity-- will be completely transformed.
“The Singularity” is that moment, he says, when technological change becomes so rapid and profound that it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.
What form would this take? Perhaps we would merge with computers and become super intelligent cyborgs OR we’ll scan our consciousness into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. This was the option taken in the movie, Transcendence.
Kurzweill is not alone in this thinking. Singularitarians are studying this possibility, and also looking at life extension. Death is seen as a solvable problem; old age as a curable illness.
Kurzweill writes in one of his books about taking many dietary supplements to extend life to the point where he can transfer his own mind and consciousness to a computer to obtain immortality. He envisions humans taking charge of their own evolution, dying only if they choose to.
As we evolve, we’ll swap our bodies for immortal robots and eventually light out for the edges of space as intergalactic god-like beings, perhaps simply as spheres of light riding on laser beams. Within a matter of centuries human intelligence will re-engineer and saturate all the matter in the universe.
In the documentary, Transcendent Man, he says the Universe is dead and we’ll wake it up; it will become intelligent. To the question, “Does God exist?" Kurzweill responds, “I would say, not yet.”
What would Ernest Holmes say about all this? First, that God DOES exist, and is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. Second, that man already IS immortal.
So when you’re on your deathbed and know that science can upload your brain, do you go for it? What if you don't like it? What if you're lonely, or miss the human touch? What if you're stuck in the computer and miss out on transitioning to the "other side," and something fabulous? Lots of unknowns, lots of "what ifs."
And so it is.
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