In the film 'Avatar' (soon to be at cinemas) the plot involves a technology which allows human 'drivers' to have their consciousness linked remotely to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body.Trailer
A similar theme is explored in another of this years films, 'Surrogates' where 'People are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates -- sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves.'
Trailer
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- How important is the body for our personal identity?
- What is it of 'us' that is living through these avatars?
- Is there any reason not to abandon our original bodies entirely and live through more appealing avatars if that were possible?
- In a way this already happens through virtual online worlds such as Second Life and through the 'version' of yourself you present in online environments. How much does old fashioned bodily interaction matter when the mind can seemingly go much further?
7 comments:
The only real reason I can consider not to abandon our original bodies is because the body we are born with is who we are. The essence of our limitations and how successful we are, are determined by our body’s ability to operate and communicate. The body in effect is an extension of our mind just like people consider their clothes as an extension of their personality. So the body catches and reveals our essence so would changing it change who we are? In example such as Avatar, it does, Jake Sully’s new body relieves him of previous limitation, and he does change from his original personality. Perhaps another example is a super mutant, like “The Thing”, whereby one event has changes his complete body make up, and as a result all he wanted what to change back to his original body. There are many more example I’m sure, but does the need for survival outweigh, the essence of who you are? Would it be enough to stop at that or would humanity look to strive not only for physical perfect but mental too?
Is there any reason not to abandon our original bodies entirely and live through more appealing avatars if that were possible?
Many would argue that our psychological identity is the vital part of our personal idenity and that it would not matter if we were placed into a body that was more appealing, we would be who we truelly were in these new bodies and that people would still be able to identify us as different people. However our bodies are often important parts of who we are our experience of life often changes due to our physical appearance contrary to what we would like to think, this then may influence our outlook on life and our psychological identity therefore changing our personal idenity. A child who was bullied for say a deformity of their body may then change their beliefs and therefore change who they are due to others vision of themselves. Although arguably when an avatar we would gain a new body and this could then effect how we are judged by others, this avatar of ourselves would be as perfect as the next. Unqiue features of our body wouldn't help determine who we are as everyone would eventually end up with the 'perfect' idea of a body and this could possibly then lead to a change of personal identity due to appearing more appealing. Our original bodies although may not be as appealing to everyone it makes us more individual.
If you were living through an avatar like the ones in the films Surrogates and Avatar then your body would be remaining motionless whilst the avatar moves around. It could be argued that your mind does not actually move into the avatar, it is simply channelled through your normal body into the avatar. For example in the film Surrogates people are still aware of their own bodies and can move back into them by will, which shows their mind remains within their human bodies at all times. This could cause problems with identity; if the avatar possesses neither the physical continuation nor the mental continuation of the person, then it is not part of their identity. So when someone experiences something through their avatar, would the results of that experience become part of the identity of the avatar or part of the identity of the person living through the avatar?
I believe our body isn't of greatest importance for our personal identity as it is essentially just a shell containing a mind. In my opinion as long as the mind remains unaffected that is our personal identity as in essence my mind is me no matter what shell I am in I will be myself. The Avatar is a bodily shell on which a mind has been transferred into but that shell has been developed from the DNA of the original human combined with DNA from the native species so it is our minds that are contained in the avatars. Yes there would a reason to keep our bodies instead of abandoning them for avatar bodies because if our bodies have significance to other people or are heightened in certain areas then it is likely that you would like to keep that body with that life. Bodily interaction still matters because it keeps us grounded and aware of what's real if we continue to heavily concentrate on the mind we might lose what is real and in doing so might be sacrificing part of ourselves and uniqueness in the process.
Although living through an avatar might sound appealing to some, it is inclined to complications upon further inspection. There are reasons on many levels for not abandoning our original bodies. The first is that on moral grounds, the fact that everything being experienced through an avatar wouldn’t be 100% real. Would it be morally justifiable to ditch our healthy bodies in favour of something more attractive that isn’t real? Surely this is just vanity at an extreme?
This also leads on to a scientific aspect of questioning what kind of impact this would have on our mental health. Some people would get carried away, just as they do with computer games currently, and they would believe it to be real. Others would need to constantly remind themselves that this is not their real self.
Also, would it be arguable that we could abandon our own healthy bodies. What would happen to our bodies whilst we operate through avatars? Would they just shut down? And if they do where and how would we store these ‘semi-conscious bodies’
My last point would be to examine the initial differences between using avatars and our original bodies. Would it really be that much better? Would the qualia of everyday life be unbelievably better? Or cause more confusion and self doubt than people already currently have? Would the quality of life be improved, and if not then besides the vanity aspect, what would be achieved?
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I think that the notion of personal "identity" is naive.
If it were possible to jump from body to body, your identity would change with your body, as the body is part of the process of identifying yourself in relation to others.
Taking the notion of "survival" will allow for this kind of jumping from body to body without affecting the thinking thing to drastically change.
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