It seems like in a post singularity world we are going to have a tremendous amount of computing power. Humans may have god like powers. So with all that power, it seem that it would be highly possible to bring back people from the dead, even if they were cremated.
This could be done several ways. First is some sort of time travel but that is highly speculative. A more likely thing is that we could simulate the immediate past via supercomputers. We will be able to use matter from the entire galaxy to run these simulations. Now we are constrained by heisenberg's uncertainty principle as to the speed and location of individual atoms. However, we don't have to simulate every single atom necessarily. We can use people's memories, historical records, DNA samples or whatever else at our disposal to reasonably approximate what would have happened in the past. It will be easiest to do this in the last ten years, but as we fill in more and more the details will become sharper. Essentially we will may able to pluck people at the exact time they died and recreate their own unique pattern of matter again. So it will be like they never died at all.
Many people might object to this on the grounds that they aren't the "real" person. But what does "real" mean anyway? Atoms in our body are continuously being changed as we consume food and excrete waste. Protein molecules are being constantly degraded. Everyday we become nearly unconcious at night but awake during the next day. Yet through all of these things, we still consider ourselves the "same" person.
I think there are a lot of people who would like to see people who have died again. Being an atheist, I see this as the only way that I will get to see any of these people again.
Of course this means as we bring back one person, they will want to see all of their relatives too. So will be able to see our evolutionary history. Also there there may be people who we don't want to bring back. Do we really need Hitler around again? Is it ethical to bring people back? Is it ethical not to do it?
What does everybody think of doing something like this (aside from any religious objections)?
Is it actually feasible? Or is it totally impossible?
I thought I heard of this idea somewhere else, but I can't seem to find it online. If anybody knows that would be great.
******EDIT
I found the original source of this idea.
In his controversial[3] 1994 book The Physics of Immortality, Tipler claims to provide a mechanism for immortality and the resurrection of the dead consistent with the known laws of physics, provided by a computer intelligence he terms the Omega Point and which he identifies with God. The line of argument is that the evolution of intelligent species will enable scientific progress to grow exponentially, eventually enabling control over the universe even on the largest possible scale. Tipler predicts that this process will culminate with an all-powerful intelligence whose computing speed and information storage will grow exponentially at a rate exceeding the collapse of the universe, thus providing infinite "experiential time" which will be used to run computer simulations of all intelligent life that has ever lived in the history of our universe. This virtual reality emulation is what Tipler means by "the resurrection of the dead."
Frank Tipler
Edited by hrc579, 26 September 2007 - 05:36 PM.