Beyond Death

Greg Bear, Eternity (London, 2010).

I am extremely skeptical of any claim that each of us consciously and indefinitely continues to exist after physical death. Surely the overwhelming evidence is that mental states depend on brain states? - although any contrary evidence must be investigated. Some analytic philosophers argue that "survival" is logically impossible but I think that that goes too far. Of course, we can define death as the end of life, in which case "life after death" is a contradiction, but matters of fact are not settled by defining words.

Could the memories and sense of identity that are transmitted from each momentary cerebral state to the next later be transmitted from the last cerebral state into some other medium or even continue without embodiment? I do not believe in disembodied consciousness - indeed, how could it be detected? - but I do not see that it is logically impossible either. Accounts of "out of the body" experiences may be disbelieved or explained as vivid imagination but they are not dismissed as verbal contradictions, like "square circle." A philosopher may continue to argue that the "survivor" is not identical with the original but concepts change as experiences change. In Buddhist teaching, the apparent self is like a candle flame, burning different wax from moment to moment, then either extinguished or passed on to another candle.

I see no impossibility in the speculation that future technology might record and preserve individual consciousness. Greg Bear gives us some feel for what this might be like. Two characters meet in a technological hereafter:

"'I'm not in the right place,' she said.
"'None of us is, mistress,' the Kelt said. 'Remember. I am trying to be strong, to remember, but it is difficult. Remember!'" (p. 279)

And another two:

"What are we - spirit, energy?
"We are like a current using the hidden conduits by which particles of matter and energy speak to each other, tell each other where they are and what they are..." (p. 258)

And again:

"They sped along the conduits reserved for the subtle messages of subatomic particles, space-time's hidden circuitry." (p. 288)

These survivors of death have become like elemental beings, merging themselves with nature. But can the minute forces linking subatomic particles carry enough information for this purpose?