Flight of the Soul

by Kalifer Deil

conscious. An example would be a translator that listens in one language, translates it then speaks the same message in another language. Such a machine wouldn’t need consciousness to do a decent translation job but it would have to exhibit a reasonable degree of intelligence.

  Mrs. Altavine: Since I called this conclave I would like some answers. What is consciousness and how can it be transferred from one entity to another.

  Rev.: It can’t be.

  Carolyne: What about the Dalai Lama? That’s how he gets passed on from generation to generation.

  Bob: At least that’s what some claim but each succeeding Dalai Lama doesn’t have the memories of the previous one so, soul maybe, conscious memories I think that’s doubtful.

  Ray: Let me address this in a number of different ways. First of all consciousness appears to be an illusion due to feedback and short term memory. You are a major item within your own short term memory hence the feedback part.

  Rev.: If you’re talking about yourself that’s pretty obvious.

  Carolyne: Look who’s talking.

  Ray: You may not like it reverend but it’s who we are. The second point is, one doesn’t necessarily need to fully understand the concept of consciousness to replicate it any more than one needs to know how to play all the instruments in a symphony orchestra in order to record it and play it back. One does need to understand the functions of all basic elements very well, that is, the frequency range and amplitude characteristics of the instruments in the orchestra case and the properties of the neurons in the brain duplication case. Long-term memories and everything else associated with who you are is in the dendritic structures and synaptic junctions and these can be mapped and measured.

  Rev.: You don’t know that!

  Ray: While it’s true I can’t prove every detail of what I just said the evidence seems to be piling up pretty rapidly in that direction. I think the most interesting aspect of this is even if measurements are off by say five percent it probably won’t make any difference. You will still think you are you and your memories, which, a bit like a hologram, are dispersed over an area of the brain so individual neurons dying have little effect. Neurons are dying continuously so our brains have to be built that way.

  Rev.: You may have duplicated a person’s memories and perhaps it will respond like a person but it will still be a soulless machine!

  Ray: Needless to say, I don’t share your view. But there are a number of interesting conundrums that unfold from this. Suppose we are duplicating Carolyne.

  Carolyne: I’ll pull my own plug!

  Rev.: No, I’ll do it first!

  Carolyne (looking at Rev.): Thanks a lot!

  Ray: No one is going to say that you will have to live on in a machine. I’m sure this won’t be for everybody. It certainly will be very expensive for quite a while.

  Carolyne: You’re saying it will be undemocratic.

  Bob: I’d say that was the least of the problems.

  Ray: Bob, you are right about other problems but I actually don’t know about the undemocratic thing. Certainly it will be for the very rich and maybe for a few special people in the beginning, like people with mental talents which are too valuable to lose.

  Carolyne: But who will decide.

  Ray: I guess you’re right, it will be undemocratic but that’s a bit off the subject. Continuing on my previously vein let’s suppose instead of replacing Carolyne’s brain piecemeal we do it all at once, overnight, so she wakes up with her new electronic brain. Will she know the difference? I don’t think so. Note, in this case, there is no continuity of consciousness since she was sleeping before, during and after the operation. She knows she is who she is because of her memories, personality and predispositions like all of us know on awakening.

  Rev.: I would know that she didn’t have a soul.

  Carolyne: You could tell by the absence of an aura. I probably wouldn’t have an aura. No aura, no soul.

  Ray: If auras are infrared radiation as some think they are then auras might be even more pronounced. In any case, if auras exist, which I doubt, they are not likely to have anything to do with a soul.

  Carolyne: I really disagree; the aura IS our astral self, our soul.

  Ray: Well, I think we will have to agree to disagree here.

  Rev.: I don’t agree with either of you. I don’t agree with Carolyne’s hocus-pocus and I don’t agree with your atheism.

  Ray stands and faces Rev.: I usually call myself an agnostic but an agnostic has often been called an atheist without the courage of his convictions. So, perhaps you’re right. (He smiles)

  Mrs. Altavine also rises: Would anyone care for tea and cookies. I have some delicious biscotti and a variety of marvelous teas. There’s a wonderful spicy herbal tea I would like you all to try.

  Bob: That sounds great Mrs. Altavine. I think we need a break. My head is starting to hurt.

  Play pause: Incidental music – “Neural Response”

  Bob: Mrs. Altavine this is truly wonderful tea. What’s in it?

  Mrs. Altavine: I’ll show you the package after. The ingredients list takes the entire end of the box. But it includes cloves, spearmint, petals from a number of different flowers, lime essence and well on and on.

  Ray: Sounds like a potpourri to deodorize a room.

  Mrs. Altavine: It has a very strong pleasant odor so it might be good for that too. (She smiles warmly)

  Carolyne: It’s good for the soul, (Then looking at Ray) for those who believe in it.

  Rev.: I feel that mine is in danger just being here.

  Bob: Reverend, that never stopped you from appearing on television with the nastiest right wing Republicans or siding with the Taliban.

  Rev.: Spoken like a true leftist atheist. It is out of fashion to call you a communist but that’s what a leftist atheist is.

  Mrs. Altavine: I called you together to get differing points of view, not to start a war.

  Ray: Let me resume. I think you will find there are enough things for everyone to ponder here.

  Bob: I’m interested to see where you are going with this.

  Ray: Let’s take Carolyne again, this time we are going to clone her on the spot biologically. We’ll use something like the Star Trek transporter. Every neural connection and detail is copied exactly. Now we have two Carolyne's. Each one thinks they are the original. Both carry on from the original consciousness; both are same person, for the first moment. After the first moment they will start to diverge just like identical twins do.

  Carolyne: I think I would like an identical twin sister.

  Bob: But that’s just science fiction.

  Ray: Not exactly, suppose Carolyne dies and we use the process described earlier to place her brain connectivity in a neural emulator. Once the information is captured we can make as many copies as we would like. There could be a hundred or even a thousand Carolyne’s.

  Rev.: Just one is one too many.

  Carolyne: For a reverend you sure have an odd view of people’s feelings. Do their feelings only count if they believe exactly as you do?

  Rev.: Ignorance is evil, blasphemy is evil, as is self indulgence and pride. I strike out at it in every way I can.

  Carolyne: I think your problem is you manifest much of what you hate.

  Bob: Come on, Ray was making a point. I’d like to hear it.

  Ray: Thanks. I’m not really indicating that it would be useful to make many copies of the same person, just that it would be possible under those circumstances. The real point is all would feel a continuity of consciousness with the original and feel they were the continuation of that original.

  Bob: Wait a minute. Are we talking about an android who looks like the original or what?

  Ray: No, not in the short term. The first emulated humans will likely live in a virtual world inhabited by other virtual humans and a collection of artificial creatures. I can’t rule out emulated dogs or cats as well.

  Rev.: Sounds like you’ve created hell. People in a video game!
Who would want that anyway?

  Ray: It’s better than it sounds. All your senses would be connected to this virtual world and everything would seem quite realistic without the negatives like bad breath, body odor and the need for bowel elimination.

  Carolyne: And can I have my former figure and muscle tone? Can I eat all my favorite caloric foods like ice cream Sundays and Saint Honoré cake?

  Ray: It will probably take some time even to make decent virtual water but you can bet as more people enter this virtual world the interest in creating a wide variety of virtual foods will increase. Eventually, it will be a bit like the Movie “The Matrix” except you’ll be in charge of this virtual world.

  Bob: I see a number of dangers here. I mean, who in the real world will be in charge of the machinery and maintaining it? And, why will they do it?

  Carolyne: Yes, there will be many people, like Reverend Faintspell here, who can’t wait to pull the plug. Who is going to cry when a bunch of senile rich zombies get their juice cut off?

  Mrs. Altavine (looking at Carolyne): You certainly have an interesting characterization of me. I don’t think I’ve reached the senile zombie stage yet.

  Carolyne: Pardon my candor but you are also not dead yet either.

  Ray: It would be pointless, even counter productive, to emulate someone whose brain has deteriorated to the point of senility. Maybe someday it would be feasible when programs can be written that make sense out of the tangles resulting from Alzheimer’s disease. To answer Bob’s concern, obviously money will speak for the first initiates. They are likely to keep on making money in