Category Archives: Immortality

There is a thing called CSI Effect. People *expect* ultra fast DNA tests, they expect "scientific evidence" very far from reality. This final chapter brings conclusion to the show. But the new case lacks original ideas, it is just as tired as the worst seasons of the show, and and it manages to inherit all the issues the CSI series had.

Old stars and characters return to a "yet another" important and big scene that can showcase it all, but as the show tries to amaze us with "detective fantasy" it manages to serve us more nonsense and an uninteresting plot.

When we watched the show the tale about individual characters added a bit of spice to this bland soup of scientific nonsense. The characters and how they performed added a lot to the "drama" in this series. But as a "service to old fans" they wanted to add conclusion to the show, and brought back (revived) old characters in an attempt to please most of us. Too bad it meant: We lost continuity.

And events in the team and continuity were one of the key redeeming qualities of the original show.

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CSI: Immortality (TV Movie 2015) - IMDb

The child is father of the man;And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. (Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up")

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,

The earth, and every common sight,

To me did seem

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night or day.

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The Rainbow comes and goes,

And lovely is the Rose,

The Moon doth with delight

Look round her when the heavens are bare,

Waters on a starry night

Are beautiful and fair;

The sunshine is a glorious birth;

But yet I know, where'er I go,

That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,

And while the young lambs bound

As to the tabor's sound,

To me alone there came a thought of grief:

A timely utterance gave that thought relief,

And I again am strong:

The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;

No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;

I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,

The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,

And all the earth is gay;

Land and sea

Give themselves up to jollity,

And with the heart of May

Doth every Beast keep holiday;

Thou Child of Joy,

Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy.

Ye blessd creatures, I have heard the call

Ye to each other make; I see

The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee;

My heart is at your festival,

My head hath its coronal,

The fulness of your bliss, I feelI feel it all.

Oh evil day! if I were sullen

While Earth herself is adorning,

This sweet May-morning,

And the Children are culling

On every side,

In a thousand valleys far and wide,

Fresh flowers; while the sun shines warm,

And the Babe leaps up on his Mother's arm:

I hear, I hear, with joy I hear!

But there's a Tree, of many, one,

A single field which I have looked upon,

Both of them speak of something that is gone;

The Pansy at my feet

Doth the same tale repeat:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

Heaven lies about us in our infancy!

Shades of the prison-house begin to close

Upon the growing Boy,

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy;

The Youth, who daily farther from the east

Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;

At length the Man perceives it die away,

And fade into the light of common day.

Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;

Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,

And, even with something of a Mother's mind,

And no unworthy aim,

The homely Nurse doth all she can

To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,

Forget the glories he hath known,

And that imperial palace whence he came.

Behold the Child among his new-born blisses,

A six years' Darling of a pigmy size!

See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,

Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,

With light upon him from his father's eyes!

See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,

Some fragment from his dream of human life,

Shaped by himself with newly-learn{e}d art

A wedding or a festival,

A mourning or a funeral;

And this hath now his heart,

And unto this he frames his song:

Then will he fit his tongue

To dialogues of business, love, or strife;

See the article here:
Ode: Intimations of Immortality from | Poetry Foundation

If you are reading these words, your brain is alive and well, stored within the protective confines of your skull where it will reside for the remainder of your life. I feel the need to point this out because there is a small but vocal population of self-proclaimed transhumanists who believe that within their lifetimes, technological advances will enable them to upload their minds into computer systems, thereby allowing them to escape the limitations of their biology and effectively live forever.

These transhumanists are wrong.

To be fair, not all transhumanists believe in mind uploading as a pathway to immortality, but theres enough chatter about the concept within that community that excitement has spilled out into the general public so much so, that Amazon has a comedic TV series based on the premise called Upload. These may be fun stories, but the notion that a single biological human will ever extend their life by uploading their mind into a computer system is pure fiction.

The concept of mind uploading is rooted in the very reasonable premise that the human brain, like any system that obeys the laws of physics, can be modeled in software if you devote sufficient computing power to the problem. To be clear, were not talking about modeling human brains in the abstract, but modeling very specific brains your brain, my brain, your uncle Herberts brain each one represented in such extreme detail that every single neuron is accurately simulated, including all the complex connections among them.

It is an understatement to say that modeling a unique, individual human brain is a non-trivial task.

There are over 85 billion neurons in your head, each with thousands of links to other neurons. In total, there are about 100 trillion connections, which is unfathomably large a thousand times more than the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Its those trillions of connections that make you who you are your personality, your memories, your fears, your skills, your peculiarities. Your mind is encoded in those 100 trillion connections, and so to accurately reproduce your mind in software, a system would need to precisely simulate the vast majority of those connections down to the most subtle interactions.

Obviously, that level of modeling will not be done by hand. People who believe in mind uploading envision an automated scanning process, likely using some kind of supercharged MRI machine, that captures the biology down to resolutions that approach the molecular level. They then envision the use of intelligent software to turn that scan into a simulation of each unique brain cell and its thousands of connections to other cells.

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That is an extremely challenging task, but I cannot deny that it is theoretically feasible. If it ever happens, it is not going to happen in the next 20 years, but much, much further out. And with additional time and resources, it also is not crazy to think that large numbers of simulated minds could co-exist inside of a rich and detailed simulation of physical reality. Still, the notion that this process will offer anyone reading this article a pathway to immortality is utterly absurd.

As I stated above, the idea that a single biological human will ever extend their life by uploading their minds is pure fiction. The two key words in that sentence are their life. While it is theoretically possible with sufficient technological advances to copy and reproduce the precise form and function of a unique human brain within a simulation, the original human would still exist in their biological body, their brain still housed within their skull. What would exist in the computer would be a copy a digital doppelgnger.

In other words, you would not feel like you suddenly transported yourself into a computer. In fact, you would not feel anything at all. The brain copying process could have happened without your knowledge, while you were asleep or sedated, and you would never have the slightest inkling that a reproduction of your mind existed within a simulation. And if you found yourself crossing a busy street with a car racing toward you you would jump out of the way, because you would not be immortal.

But what about that version of you within a simulation?

You could think of it as a digital clone or identical twin, but it would not be you. It would be a copy of you, including all your memories up to the moment your brain was scanned. But from that instant on, it would generate its own memories. It might be interacting with other simulated minds in a simulated world, learning new things and having new experiences. Or maybe it interacts with the physical world through robotic interfaces. At the same time, the biological you would be generating new memories and having new experiences.

In other words, it would only be identical for an instant, and then you and the copy would both diverge in different directions. Your skills would diverge. Your knowledge would diverge. Your personalities would diverge. After a few years, there would be substantial differences. Your copy might become deeply religious while you are agnostic. Your copy might become an environmentalist while you are an oil executive. You and the copy would retain similar personalities, but you would be different people.

Yes, the copy of you would be a person but a different person. Thats a critical point, because that copy of you would need to have its own identity and its own rights that have nothing to do with you. After all, that person would feel just as real inside their digital mind as you feel within your biological mind. Certainly, that person should not be your slave, required to take on tasks that you are too busy to do during your biological life. Such exploitation would be immoral.

After all, the copy would feel just like you feel fully entitled to own its own property and earn its own wages and make its own decisions. In fact, you and the copy would likely have a dispute as to who gets to use your name, as you would both feel like you had used it your entire life. If I made a copy of myself, it would wake up and fully believe it was Louis Barry Rosenberg, a lifelong technologist in the fields of virtual reality and artificial intelligence. If it was able to interact with the real world through digital or robotic means, it would believe it had every right to use the name Louis Barry Rosenberg in the physical world. And it certainly would not feel subservient to the biological version.

In other words, creating a digital copy through mind uploading has nothing to do with allowing you to live forever. Instead, it would just create a competitor who has identical skills and capabilities and memories to the biological version, and who feels equally justified to be the owner of your identity. And yes, the copy would feel equally justified to be married to your spouse and parent to your children.

In other words, mind uploading is not a path to immortality. It is a path for creating another you who immediately will feel like they are equally justified owners of everything you possess and everything you have accomplished. And they would react exactly the way you would react if you woke up one day and were told: Sorry, but all those memories of your life arent really yours but copies, so your spouse is not really your spouse, your kids are not really your kids, and your job is not really your job.

Is this really what anyone would want to subject a copy of yourself to?

Back in 2008, I wrote a graphic novel called Upgrade that explores the absurdity of mind uploading. It takes place in the 2040s in a future world where everyone spends the vast majority of their lives in the Metaverse, logging in the moment they wake up and logging out the moment they go to sleep. (Coincidentally, the fictional reason why society went in this direction was a global pandemic that drove people inside.) What the inhabitants of this future world didnt realize is that as they lived their lives in the Metaverse, they were being characterized by AI systems that observed all of their actions and reactions and interactions, capturing every sentiment and emotional response so it could build a digital model of their mind from a behavioral perspective rather than from molecular scanning.

After 20 years of collecting data in this dystopian metaverse, the fictional AI system had fully modeled every person in this future society with sufficient detail that it didnt need real people anymore. After all, real humans are less efficient, as we need food and housing and healthcare. The digital copies didnt need any of that. And so, guess what the fictional AI system decided to do? It convinced all of us biological people to upgrade ourselves by ending our own lives and allowing the digital copies to replace us. And we were willing to do it under the false notion that we would be immortal.

Thats what mind uploading really means. It means ending humanity and replacing it with a digital representation. I wrote Upgrade 14 years ago because I genuinely believe we humans might be foolish enough to head in that direction, ending our biological existence in favor of a purely digital one.

Why is this bad? If you think Big Tech has too much power now having the ability to track what you do and moderate the information you access imagine what it will be like when human minds are trapped inside the systems they control, unable to exit. That is the future many are pushing for. Its terrifying. Mind uploading is not the path to immortality some believe.

Continued here:
Transhumanists want to upload their minds to a computer. They really won't like the result - Big Think

The earliest story of the grand churning of the ocean of milk, samudra-manthan, for the nectar of immortality, amrita, is found in the Mahabharata. But strangely there are more images of this mythological episode in Southeast Asian temples than in India. There is no artwork in India to match the grand Angkor Wat corridor in Cambodia that shows devas and asuras holding the serpent-king Vasuki with Vishnu overseeing the entire enterprise. At Bangkoks Suvarnabhumi airport one finds Vasuki (or Adi Sesha) take the shape of a Chinese dragon. In India, at best, we find images of Vishnu as Kurma, the turtle, on walls of Vishnu temples, despite the widespread popularity of the story. This may have something to do with the ambiguous relationship that Indian philosophy has with the idea of immortality.

The Buddha was clear that nothing in this world is permanent. There is no concept of a permanent soul either. Jains insisted that every organism has a permanent soul ( jiva). Hindus went a step further and said besides a soul ( jiva-atma) in every organism, there is a cosmic soul ( param-atma) animating the whole world. But the idea of amrita is different from atma. Amrita is about the immortal and youthful body; atma is about the unseen, formless, tranquil spirit.

In the Puranas, when an asura asks Brahma for the boon of immortality, he is told that it is one boon that cannot be given. So the asura asks for a boon by which he seeks to outsmart death and make himself near-immortal. He fails, of course. There is always a loophole, something the demon forgets to ask protection from. Ravana is killed by a human; Mahisha by a woman; Taraka by a child. Everyone has a vulnerable spot.

A threatened swarga

We are told that only the devas are blessed with amrita; they never grow old, they never die. But their luxurious life in swarga is constantly threatened by relentless attacks by asuras. Eternal life does not seem to be accompanied by eternal joy. Is there a message here?

Painting showing Lakshmi emerging from the milky ocean.| Photo Credit: Wiki Commons

In a later version of the story of churning the ocean, we are told that Lakshmi disappears from swarga when Durvasa insults the hedonistic Indra. To churn her out, this enterprise is planned. The asuras serve as the counterforce. These enemies of the devas agree only because they are offered a share of the fruits of labour. But when amrita appears, the asuras are tricked and denied their share. Devas become immortal, not the asuras. A story of injustice that is often quoted in anti-caste circles to illustrate Brahmanical trickery.

But that is only half the story. The asuras have Shukra as their guru and he has access to sanjivani vidya that resurrects dead asuras. Asuras may not be immortal; but they can regenerate themselves and trouble devas endlessly. The authors of these stories insist that devas cannot be all-powerful and eternally successful, even if they have amrita.

In the story of samudra-manthan, Vishnu takes the form of Mohini and offers to distribute amrita fairly between devas and asuras. Enchanted by her beauty, both parties agree. Since the enterprise was initiated by devas, she begins by serving devas first. But one asura named Svarbhanu doubts Mohinis intention and sits among the devas as one of them. The sun and the moon identify him and Vishnu immediately cuts off Svarbhanus head.

The samudra-manthan is also equated with the turning of the year. When the devas are pulling, it is Uttarayana, when the days get longer and warmer. When the asuras are pulling, it is Dakshinayana, when days are getting shorter and colder. This is not a tug-of-war; this is manthan, a churn, where the devas and asuras have to collaborate, pull while the other pauses. Only collaboration generates amrita, seems to be the message.

Vishnu splits the world by placing devas above the sky and asuras below the earth in patala. Here, in the subterranean realm, sprouts every seed. From here springs water, metal, and gem. That is why Lakshmi is called Pulomi, the daughter of the asura-king Puloman. She emerges to become Vishnus wife, Sachi, during harvest time and returns to her fathers house during sowing season.

When Lakshmi finally appears from the ocean of milk, she chooses as her husband not Indra, the king of devas, but Vishnu. Indra, the supreme deity of the Veda, is a junior deity in Puranas. He constantly fights asuras and is insecure about his position. He lacks the confidence, contentment, and grace of Vishnu. But she always comes back to Vishnu, as only he always upholds dharma. Her repeated return turns Vaikuntha into the ocean of milk, a realm of abundance.

By placing Vishnu above Indra, the collaborator is celebrated over the competitor. By placing Vaikuntha above swarga, the scriptures are positioning the spiritual above the material. The spirit is eternal not the flesh, not the material world. The body decays and dies. The world rises only to fall.

Distinctly Indian

Later Hindu mythology has ideas of chiranjeevi, the immortals, perhaps the result of contact with Chinese monks who spoke of the eight Taoist immortals of the Jade Heaven. But an analysis of the stories of Chiranjeevi reveals something distinctly Indian. They are a tool to make us realise how the quest for material permanence is futile, and only creates misery. Hanuman and Vibhishana have to watch how Ram eventually has to leave earth and return to Vaikuntha. Kripa and Ashwatthama have to witness how wars do not solve problems. Parashurama observes how kings do not change, despite threats of violence. Bali realises that generosity does not solve all human problem. Markandeya, saved by Shiva, has to witness how during pralaya everything in this world withdraws into Vishnu, awaiting a suitable time of for regeneration.

We build things for permanence. We believe in happily ever after. Every deva feels the defeat of asuras is permanent. Every asura feels that the vanquished devas will never return. But they are always proved wrong. Nature balances the nectar of immortality, amrita, with halalal, the poison consumed by Shiva, and sanjivani that the asuras have access too. Every asura thinks he can cheat death but is invariably outsmarted.

As Yudhishtira told the yaksha when asked about the greatest wonder, Everyday people die but the rest live as if we are immortal.

The writer is author of 50 books on mythology, art and culture.

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The elusive amrita and the question of eternal life - The Hindu

Who wants to live forever? Most people. And in D&D, its surprisingly easy to live forever without having to break any rules.

Immortality is a gift. Or its a curse. It all depends on your point of view. Because if you live long enough youll eventually have to face the consequences of your actions.

But for something so lofty, its surprisingly easy in D&D to live forever without breaking any rules. Youll have to actually try to do it, sure. But there are plenty of ways that your character could live forever. Note, thats live forever. So no vampires or liches need apply. We want your heart (and soul) to keep on keepin on.

This first one is certainly the most eco-friendly way to live forever. Its relatively painless, but the trick is that while you technically can go on and on and on, you do have to die at least a little bit in between go rounds.

The spell works when the caster touches a dead humanoid or part thereof. So you have to be dead (but for no more than 10 days). Then the spell creates a new adult body and calls your soul into that body. As an added bonus you might even be in an entirely different type of body. You could be a Dragonborn in one life, and a Tiefling in the next. But you recall your life and experiences and all your capabilities.

Dont want to be different? Clone grows an inert duplicate of you as you are. It takes 120 days, of course, but whatre 120 days every now and then compared to eternity?

Especially since you can choose to have the clone be a younger version of you (so you dont have to worry about dying of old age). And once its matured, if you happen to die, you immediately wake up in the clones body. Sure you wont have your stuff, but hey, thats the least of your problems.

One of the most underutilized books in D&D, the Dungeon Masters Guide contains the seeds of immortality. Theres an epic boon that grants you immunity from aging, magical or otherwise.

Now you have to get to the 20th level and then do something to merit it. Sure. But if you make it that far, you may as well go for it. The Boon of Immortality means you stop aging. So just pack a month or so full of XP and youll be immortal in no time.

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If you want to live forever, youve got plenty of time. So you may as well pick up the Oath of the Ancients subclass.

At high levels, you become ageless and immune to disease. And with all the time in the world, you could just devote yourself to love, peace, and delighting in song and laughter, in beauty and art. Sounds like not a bad way to spend eternity.

In the Astral Sea, time doesnt pass. Well, it does and it doesnt. But the upshot is that creatures in the Astral Plane dont age. Githyanki know this, Githzerai know this. All manner of creatures extend their limited time by spending a millennium or two floating amid the starstuff.

Just watch out for Astral Dreadnoughts.

Happy Adventuring

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D&D: Five Ways to Live Forever Without Breaking the Rules - BoLS

1986s Highlander and its sequels are most definitely one of the hardest-to-explain franchises in recent cinematic and television history, considering that its sequels retconned the foundations set by the first film.

For example, while far from being the perfect release at its time, the first film rose to the heights of cult-classic status, while its direct sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, is considered among the worst films ever made.

Highlander: The Series, on the other hand, has received some really favorable reviews, thanks to its unique and inspiring storytelling, with each episode offering a provocative glimpse into the trials and concerns of immortality. In fact, the series was an international hit that ran for six seasons before running out of fuel in Season 6, which was reflected in the final seasons overall quality. However, even the producers were aware of the shows end, so they decided to experiment with introducing a female Immortal protagonist.

And thats how Highlander: The Raven was born; the team behind The Series didnt know which of the regular female characters to feature, so they chose to center the narrative around a recurring character, Amanda portrayed by Elizabeth Gracen. The Raven is a peculiar piece of television history for numerous reasons, starting with the fact that it was the first time in the franchises history that a female Immortal had the chance to take the spotlight.

However, this Immortal (and by that, we mean the entire spin-off) had its own issues, as it suffered numerous production issues and heavy criticism upon release. Still, just like the original Highlander, it managed to grow on people over time, and those who rewatched the series during quarantine say that the show is better than they remember. It could be the quarantine talking, or the fact that a lot of entertainment work today is a low-quality derivative of something released 3040 years ago, or perhaps its the possibility of The Raven aging like a fine wine.

The show follows Amanda, a likable thief from Highlander: The Series, in a television show of her own. Shes beautiful, clever, and witty and has been one of the fan-favorite characters for the previous six years, which obviously allowed Davis-Panzer Productions to make more money off the franchise by launching the spin-off. However, at the shows beginning, Amanda is portrayed as an amoral woman merely tripping through her endless life.

The new heroine is much more morally ambiguous than Duncan, the protagonist of the previous main series, which admirably raises moral questions about immortality and how it might affect the lives of mortals and Immortals alike. Of course, the main character of the series isnt going to be decapitated (the only way to kill an Immortal), so the series centers on Amanda facing up to her fears and taking responsibility for her actions rather than running away as she wouldve in the past.

In the pilot, she meets Nick Wolfe portrayed by Paul Johansson from Once Upon a Time a tired archetypal cop character with a strong moral code whos investigating a series of robberies. He discovers Amandas immortality during his investigation, but not before his partner, Claudia, sacrifices her own life to save Amanda. Claudias death has a profound effect on Amanda, who just witnessed a human giving away something so precious their life something that Amanda takes for granted.

That event, paired with the knowledge of causing the deaths of a battalion of soldiers in WWI and Nicks strong moral code, influenced Amanda to become a better person and actually gain the strength of character to face up to other Immortals even when she thinks she cant win. Unfortunately, the first half of Season 1 or Season Only, considering that the series has only one season felt more akin to an overly exploited cop television show rather than a narrative about the warring Immortals.

The latter half of the season switches into a Highlander mode, focusing more on Immortals, flashbacks, and longsword duels and less on being a cop-based lackluster spin-off in which one of the characters happens to be an Immortal. Instead, it centered more on the series new femme fatale facing off against Immortals and trying to be a better person, a fairer and honor-bound fighter, and for some reason, an unsuccessful thief.

In the series final episode, Nick inhales a deadly poison and has about 24 hours to live. Upon realizing that hes going to die, Amanda shoots Nick since only a shock of violent death can trigger his immortality. Yes, Nick is immortal, and Amanda knew all along even if he didnt. But, the morally strong retired cop isnt too happy about the revelation, and the series ends on a cliffhanger with Nick walking away from/angry at Amanda.

Unfortunately, Highlander: The Raven was decapitated after only one season. The lack of chemistry between the leads, low ratings, and change in the marketing of syndicated shows all contributed to the shows failure the foremost reason being the biggest one. The cast and the crew hated each other, and Gracen was apparently at the center of it all or, at the very least, an instigator of incidents.

In an odd twist of real life imitating fiction, Gracen came under the scrutiny of the public eye at large during the filming of The Raven for her one-night stand with Bill Clinton a few years prior and was subpoenaed to testify against him. Luckily, she managed to dodge the whole political escapade thanks to The Raven being filmed outside the country. Unfortunately, however, her partner at the time, a skilled con artist who convinced her that he was the U.S. Ambassador to the Cayman Islands, also convinced her that her co-star, Paul Johansson, was a CIA plant looking to gain information from her.

But the off-camera duels didnt just end there. Apparently, the television network that financed most of the spin-off had no stake in the original series and didnt much care about continuity. So they wanted to divert the show into something entirely different and separate from The Highlander universe, which is why the first half of the season resembles a cliched cop-drama rather than a series revolving around sword-swinging immortals decapitating each other because there can be only one left.

Considering just how much of a trainwreck the production of Highlander: The Raven was, its almost surprising that the show somehow managed to deliver more than just a few good episodes. It is interesting to think just how entertaining a second season might have been, with Nick discovering his immortality and Amanda mentoring him in the way of the longsword. Unfortunately, that didnt happen since the series imploded under the weight of personal feuds and production mismanagement.

Ultimately, Highlander: The Raven is a fun and entertaining introduction to the Highlander franchise, despite being a syndicated TV show whose production staff had to work with what they had and they did not have plenty. Its certainly a lot more respectable compared to Netflix, Apple, or other more prominent streaming services pouring tens and hundreds of millions into projects that end up being massive flops.

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Everything You Need to Know About When the 'Highlander' Series Went Femme Fatale - Black Girl Nerds