Barb L – Chicago, IL
It would only matter what happened to me after death if you could download all of my thoughts onto a memory disk. My ancestors will be able to know what my choices would be if I were still alive and ask me questions.
It would be a computer program. The program will be able to download your thought processes and recreate them, and even our inconsistencies would be built in. There are a bunch of documentaries on this subject matter. I don’t know if my ancestors would care about my advice or not, but I’d find it fascinating to talk to my great relatives. I see it as a computer program that could be accessed at home maybe. I don’t think you’d need to go anyplace special to access it. This is so wide open at this point, but it’s going to happen. I guarantee it.
You could say “What would great aunt Barbie say about this?” and you’d get my answer. This isn’t that far away. The whole question of mortality becomes nebulous. Is it you or your thought processes? I’m completely fascinated by the idea of what it means to be human.
In terms of my actual body, if nobody is going to visit me, I don’t care. Just do whatever is cheapest. When my father died, my mom offered to buy me and my sister a funeral plot in Michigan, but I said no. I’m the youngest one so there will be nobody to visit anyway. So what do you do? I really don’t know.
Side note:
Barb sent a follow-up email a little after this interview with some links that talk more about this idea transfer and what it means to be human:
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/scientists-are-convinced-mind-transfer-is-the-key-to-immortality
http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_35/b3644022.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeBwAMWQW-4
Age: 49 at time of interview
Religious Affiliation: Raised Catholic, no longer Catholic but believes in a higher power of some sort
Occupation: Playwright and medical market researcher
Location: Born in Detroit, lived in Boston, now in Chicago