After watching these three films, I have a conjecture; if cognitive functions can be transplanted into new physical bodies like computer chips, will no one die? If cognition is not a reality but only a part of the brain that directs the body’s movement, can this cognitive function be like the computing function of a computer? Can it be separated from the “hardware” of the brain’s physical structure and become a kind of detachment from the body? “software”?
“Out of the Past” Altered Carbon
Its highlight is that it introduces the concept of cortical stack and sleeve. In the future, everyone will be implanted with a cortical stack when people are one year old; inside is the pure human mind, coded and stored as DHF: Digital Human Freight. If you are killed, as long as the cortical stack is not damaged, you can be resurrected with a prosthetic body. This cortical stack is a bit like the U disk we use now. As long as the cortical stack is not corrupted, the mind can be imported into anybody like data. Consciousness can be transmitted, people will have a new sleeve/body, and human beings will live forever, but human nature is unchanged. For example, Bancroft, the richest man in the world, became “God” because his consciousness is immortal. The physical body is just a carrier. Cognition and consciousness can be digitized, copied, and downloaded to a new carrier anytime. Here, As Viocethread said, the body is more associated with women, people of color, and gay people; the body is a commodity, and there are different types, and the mind becomes the data stored in the USB flash drive. Losing the USB flash drive is death.
“Return to Tomorrow.” Star Trek.
The episode “Return to Tomorrow” is similar to “Out of the past.” Mind and cognition can be stored in any container, including spheres that act as brains to hold the mind, but the characters believe that without a body, the mind cannot reach its full potential.As Captain Kirk and the rest of the crew heard Sargon’s voice in a sphere, we got some visual footage of him (showing their confusion); Sargon said: “I am Sargon. Sealed in this receptacle is the essence of mind. A body much as yours. Although our minds were infinitely greater.” Sargon also showed that he could transmit his consciousness to the captain through a light beam. In a later scene, Sargon’s wife goes to Sargon, Sargon’s wife is in the Doctor’s body, and Sargon is in Captain Kirk’s. While it is theoretically believed that we cannot put our minds in our brains or bodies, cognition occurs through our interactions with the environment, and awareness extends from our brains and bodies into the atmosphere. We think in terms of context, including contextual cultural context and social or interpersonal context. Therefore, cognition is always abstract. In this cognition, the mind is how we experience the world around us – not our brain or body. So Sargon and his wife have consciousness and mind and can be embedded in any container; they are immortal.
“The Day the Earth Stood Stupid.” Futurama
In the episode “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid,” it is fascinating to show that the brain is itself. The mind in Voicethread is not necessarily our body; the brain is the organ of thought and exists in neural networks. In this episode, the gains brain begins to attack Earth, and Leela escapes with Nibbler to his home planet. This scene takes a “brain in a vat” approach to the concept of cognition. The brain can think freely without the need for a body, has enormous power over people’s brain waves, and it’s clear here that the brain becomes a flying organ that relies entirely on neurostimulation. Utterly inconsistent with the Cartesian dualism that there are two different fundamental entities in the world, mind and body. The essence of the reason is to think, be conscious and perform other mental activities. The nature of objects is that they are in space and have extensions. The biggest flaw in dualism is that it doesn’t explain how body and mind are united, or rather, it doesn’t explain how body and soul (mind) interact with each other.
3 thoughts on “Cognition: Humans Could Live Forever”
Hi Yiyi,
Your observation that, if we separate mind and body, humans could, potentially, live forever, is I think part of the what makes the Cartesian “ghost in the machine,and cybernetic approaches to cognition so popular. If we can detach our minds from our bodies, then maybe we can outlive and outlast our bodies. But this raises an important question: What would our minds be like without our bodies? What would we lose by detaching our minds from our bodies? How would that change our minds and the way we think? We will actually look at this more later during our time together when we watch the Star Trek episode “Measure of a Man.”
To this end, consider the representation that we get of Sargon’s consciousness. We learn that he hasn’t had a body for half a million years. Instead, his mind has been stored in that orb while he waited for another vessel—a body. However, while in the orb, Sargon can’t really interact with the world. We see that he can project his mind to the Enterprise and that he can still communicate telepathically. But he cannot move his orb, and can’t interact with the world—that’s why he need Kirk’s body. If cognition is enacted through our interactions with the world, what does that mean for a brain in a vat or a consciousness in an orb?
Jessica Hautsch
Hi Yi, awesome analysis. When it comes to Altered Carbon, I do agree with your question of no one really dying. From what I have seen, the physical body is just a carrier. It is so interesting when you stop and think how people in this show have just been given immortality, swapping from one body to another, as long as the chip is still intact and not damaged. I also agree that in “The Day the Earth Stood Stupid”, they are creative with the idea of a “brain in a vat”. It’s also important to know that without one’s body, the brain can only think with logic and without creativity, much like how Fry used both his mind and body to big the big brain. Great post.
hbaalbaki
Hi Yi, I love your opening paragraph! It was really thought provoking to think of cognitive function in that way and I think the shows we watched this week are great examples of the questions you posed. I think your ending sentence in your paragraph about “Altered Carbon” is a great example of the environment being what affects the cognitive mind. I made a similar comparison to the one you made between the Star Trek episode and Altered Carbon. I love that you brought up the “brain in a vat” concept, that episode of Futurama and your explanation actually aided my understanding of the concept.
Meghan Krulder