Creation and transition into virtual reality world is the only true road to everlasting life.

by Leonid Sakharov

The only true way for eternal life is transition of the human conscious from material body into the world of virtual reality. Although modern technology is still far away for achieving this goal the test for defining a equality of virtual person with its physical prototype can be defined already setting roadmap of key technological breakthroughs for transition into virtual worlds.
Our world is as cruel to human being as if specially created to sadistically enjoy spectacle of slow death agony of intelligence creature completely recognizing his imminent tragedy.

Any promising escape from trap of our existence that will end very soon (young man it is really soon believe me, very, very soon) in dead of principal actor – you will explore as first task at the tomorrow morning. Talking about hypothesis that our world is the virtual reality game of other, higher world player we are not even in the domain of science fiction but in between somewhere in twilight triangle of mega-church, mental institution and food supplement telemarketing. Let’s return to the respectful ground of close horizon science fiction exploring avenue to creation of virtual, better for us virtual reality instead of our tragic one.

The intelligent person with imagination and almost unlimited financial recourses must ask himself about what good to have all these money if in a several blinks of eye he will be corpse. Ask not to be or not to be, ask how soon not to be. For most of humans at planet Earth life condition are poor, promises of prosperous future have happened to be mirage, when politicians scaring with global catastrophe of climate change followed boiling oceans covered whole planet the angst of personal finish is not at focal point of everyday conscious. But what if somebody controls trillions dollars, broad educated, with vivid imagination and reasonable healthy to enjoy simple gifts of life? Maybe there is nobody now at the planet who has all these characteristics. But what about collectively thousands billionaires? Can they cooperate to fight death? Maybe, maybe not. Let presume that answer is yes. They are able to unite resources to find the way indefinitely prolonging their life. What are their options?

Cloning yourself, waiting clone growth up to 20ish and transplant your brain (with or without sculpt or spine) into young body of essentially yourself. It is quite straightforward technology. I did figure out it practically after very first serious discussions about cloning in 80th. Then wrote it down and published later in form of script for action-movie: The Center. The story of the script is interesting by itself. It can be read by the link above.

Other promising way to stop or even reverse aging lies in area of gene engineering. It looks like if to understand mechanism of human body on the molecular level and figure out why human body is deteriorated after passing reproductive age then process of aging can be reversed. There are theories like DNA damaging, telomere shortening and others not so popular but who knows what will work until full success will be reached. It is respectful science that could take forever to produce any result just as others of global problems like for instance cancer treatment that not resolved in any kind of finality; fusion power stations sells nothing to non existed customers (not working after at least 70 years of intensive research. It is close to solution forever. Most theoretical problems are understood but looks like no practical one at horizon); human space exploration did mostly regress for last decades; high temperature superconductivity lost any funding to do any progress. The point is that science can produce the pill against aging sometimes in a future. This drug can be affordable practically for everybody. But how long and how much it will take completely unknown entities.

Both avenues for human person self-preservation against aging described above are in domain of our reality. They can protect individual from poisoning effect of regular lunching (joke if somebody didn’t read a humoristic statistical research with conclusion that cucumbers are deadly toxic because most dead people consumed them at least one time in life). The brain transplantation or magic pill cannot protect from close explosion or bullet into the brain. What if because feeling of invisibility immortal population stop working, saving, start to reproduce uncontrollable. The future of society without fear of death is unpredictable and hedonism is the most optimistic option. Civil war or total anarchy are extraordinary unhealthy and could lead to premature violent death even perfectly young individual.

In material reality everything and everybody can be annihilated into plasma. Material human body is vulnerable, period. What about conscious, memory, feeling yourself? What about soul? Information can be preserved by duplications. If human person equal to information about him the file with this data can be saved in multiple copies and as such it can be virtual indestructible. If human can be reduced to very big file containing whole instruction how to reproduce not only his or her body but also whole experience and how to put senselessly into environment matching very last memories in this case even total destructing of the body would be seemingly reversible. The question is it possible even in principle?

In most science fiction movies about virtual reality these trying to be believable even for engineers and scientists there is tandem of human brain and computer (let it be mega-giga like in Matrix or just super like in “The Thirteen floor”). The mechanism of human memory is unknown up to now. Would it be otherwise instead of attending University courses student would swallow the pills contained full textbooks for specialization. Criminologists cannot extract neither short no long memories of victim to point out on killed directly. Memory is still a pure mystery (maybe it is stored in upper worlds? It is jumping over reasoning to farther chapters.)

The problem of creation impression that user of virtual reality software operates in other artificially created world is been solving since the very first movie “The Arrival of the Mail Train” released in 1896. The technique of replacing stream of signals from physical world by imaginary one became more and more complete and convincing. There are only limited channels of information from outer surrounding into our body and all of them can be simulated. Some of our senses are easy to trick like sight, hearing and touch; others traditional two: taste and smell are much more complex and difficult to reproduce. Non traditional senses: temperature, balance and acceleration, sexual stimulation can be reproduced too. The sense of pain is the trickiest one to simulate.

By analogy if soft touch of woman hand can be easy reproduced by soft touch of silicone covered manipulator any number times at will, the pain from torturous cutting off the finger can be simulated by cutting the finger, but only one time or at least not often if retransplant it back every time. The pain is usually associated with material damage of the body. Sure there could be electrodes implanted into main nerves connected to the brain and sending signals analogous to pain. Simulation of any signals from outer world into brain is durable even on present level of scientific understanding and technology development. But method of the brain replacement is completely inconceivable at current level of development. It is sort of paradoxical because if we all can agree that computer processor is analogous of the brain with exact the same functions – to calculate and remember.

There is no rational argument can be made about what is the principal difference between the brain and CPU of computer. Nevertheless none of serious thinkers is willing to proclaim that brain of specific human can be replaced with computer chip without end of life for this person. This brings as to the question what is the human?

Alan Turing in 1950 offered the test for recognition of artificial intellect. If human cannot distinct answers of computer from answers of other human it means that computer has intellect. By analogous if one human cannot distinct behavior of robot from human it would mean that robot is human. Really? There are already sex robots with artificial intellect. It is obviously that they can be improved up to the point to be unrecognizable as if to be humans, will be they humans?

The Turing test is paraphrase of “if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck”. Most political people using this “duck test” omit the world “probably” by the way. It is easy to image that human personality can be simulated for other humans to the point of impossibility to distinct between prototype and decoy. According to the duck test they are “probably” equal. Maybe they are, but if you will be presented by your own copy most possible you will not agree that this copy is you. What make it tragically comic the reaction of your copy at you. It will also definitely says that you not him, that he is original. And all others would have no ability to distinct except X-ray that is not commonly available. What if the action scene is court room where you are convicted and it is invaded of ten copies of yours? Just kidding.

The ultimate test for true virtual reality must be like following experiment: The person lives regular life except that when goes to sleep randomly on chosen number of days his brain is put into medically induced comma. When the brain is in coma virtual replica of the person is complete physically disconnected from the brain and functioning separately inside virtual reality exclusively as computer software. Then after some period before the brain is awaking from the coma experience of the software replica of the person in virtual world is implanted into the brain. Person should not be told when he is virtual software and when he is physical person. The person needs to keep diary with marking each day as spent in physical world or in virtual software like reality. If person cannot distinct between these two worlds the virtual life is as good as real one.

There are several technological barriers on the true virtual reality that can pass the test above: The first one is the creation of the software that will behave exactly as physical reality. In spite that by volume of work to fulfill the task it is mostly technical by nature. No principal hurtle need to be overcome. Just enormous project no more.
The second and third operations are noninvasive extracting and implanting whole conscious and experience including memory from and into the brain. From scientific and technological points of view it is impossible at the present level of understanding. Exact this is the area of science fiction with emphasis with the word “fiction”.

The reading all information from the brain is not outside of principal possibility. If to have 3D detector with resolution on the level of one molecule that will read whole content of the brain the task can be accomplished. (Take me right. This is about far in future when instrument with such characteristics could be developed.) Implanting memories back into brain is even more challenging. Let say I have no slightest idea how it could be done if at all. Sort of good news about procedure of implanting memory back into brain is that for successful test several days or weeks of new memory would be enough. If memory in human brain contained in chemical molecules they can be synthesized, if it is electrical state of neurons they can be rewrote. Easier to say than to do. I know.

If and when ultimate test of virtual reality will be passed there will be no reason to return conscious into physical body. Virtual world can be as interesting and entertaining as one can pay to develop. And it could promise multiple lives to experience in reincarnation. But this is the matter of other chapters.

Nov. 10, 2018; 18:33 EST

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