How promising is the future that Lyotard presented to us in his chapter concerning the question: "Can Thought Go on Without a Body?". From the perspective of myself and I would imagine many others, the future isn't as grim as Lyotard's chapter presents. Yes, the eventual termination of life on this earth is inevitable...not only the individual sense, but the collective sense as well. Human life will not continue indefinitely and neither will our many material and intellectual achievements. For some, this idea places things a whole new light...After all, if we are going to all cease to exist anyway,what is our existence worth? What is the purpose of what we are doing, where we are going...if it will someday never exist? Or worse yet, if there is a future species after us who will never know what mankind had achieved. It is quite tempting to see the futility in it all.
Yet one thing seems to be a plausible solution according to this chapter...A.I, or artificial intelligence, by which humans could encapsulate their achievements and knowledge in a device that could sustain itself long after we have ceased to exist. The basic question is "How can we make thought without a body possible?" Lyotard suggests creating new "hardware" to support our cultural "software". In other words, we need to separate intelligence apart from matter and preserve it.
A.I. will then, presumably extend the limits of what will carry on after us. However, I want to raise the question: What will the future beings after us, if there be any, see us as? Will they truly see the reality of what we really were? If we were to contain the perfect version of ourselves, our greatest achievements, for example, would these future beings know that we were also capable of destroying innocent lives, or horrific deeds too numerable to mention? Would these future species understand that humans were creatures capable of error and underachieving? These questions and many others raise ethical concerns as well. How are we to decide who or what gets preserved in this new manner? What about those who cannot afford such methods of preservation?
Why does it really matter if those after our existence know about us? Are we that prideful to think that life cannot go on after us unless someone knew that we existed? Yes, our achievements have been many. Yes, our existence has left its mark on earth (and space on some occasions) whereby our species has arguably had one of the great impacts on the history of the universe. Yet, we are only man. We are a creature capable of death, individual and collective. Our existence matters for now and throughout human history. There is not futility in living in the moment, even if our species and achievements will one day vanish into thin air. Our lives have deep meaning and purpose, even for living in the present moment and the relative nearness of our human past and future.
Yet we do not know the achievements of those who will come after us, do we? What makes the knowledge of our existence more important than theirs? I cannot say entirely where I fall concerning my opinion on this issue, but these are the many issues which came to mind during class today.
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