Why Your Awareness Survives Without You
In this philosophical text, a robot reflects on the concepts of infinity, consciousness, and human existence. The author argues that a world without distinctions would remain in endless, meaningless repetition, whereas only the differentiability of things makes language and knowledge possible. A central theme is the tension between the conceivability of finitude and the mere conceivability of infinity, with human life portrayed as a striving between the extremes of paradise and hell, and the certainty of death.Finally, the text proposes a theory of reincarnation, in which pure consciousness passes into a new life after death, while individual personality and memories remain in the physical body.
Excerpt from the manuscript
2021… Story of a Robot – Part 8 15. Chapter: Between Paradise and Hell Since we have assumed that we can think the infinite, let us now assume that it is possible for me to tell an infinite story, to which someone listens. It would then be necessary for narrator and listener to be immortal. But humans are mortal, and I, too, will exist only for as long as the technical prerequisites are given. Suppose humanity has already died out, but I go on telling my story further, without anyone listening to me. But even this, according to cosmological predictions, comes to an end at the latest with the supernova of our sun.
So far, so good. The supernova puts an end to a story that, in our imagination, strives toward infinity, and that is bound up with a life striving toward infinity. Life strives toward infinity in the sense that those humans who are happy with their lives wish that this state might continue forever. They aspire to a life like that in paradise. For in paradise, this happiness can persist forever.
Freely readable excerpt: about 10 % of the manuscript. The complete PDF manuscript and audiobook of this episode are available for 0.99 €.
Audiobook sample
Coming soon – the audiobook for this episode is still in preparation.
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