Can humans achieve immortality? Can consciousness exist apart from the body?

There is a question that has always troubled mankind: Is it possible for humans to live forever? Or is it possible for us to live forever in digital form? So today we will discuss the topic of immortality.

In fact, it is possible for organisms to live forever. Of course, I am referring to some organisms, such as single-cell organisms such as bacteria. They always change from 1 cell to 2 cells, and these 2 cells divide again to become 4 cells and then 8 cells. So in a sense, the original e-cell is actually always alive, but it lives in a certain component of the subsequent cells. In this sense, it may be considered a kind of immortality. But for multicellular organisms, such immortality does not exist.

Take us humans for example. According to scientific research, the theoretical upper limit of the working life that our body, our structure, can withstand is between 120 and 150 years. That is to say, if we have all the medical conditions in place, and live very carefully and pay great attention to health preservation, then at most we can live to over 120 years old. It is impossible to live longer than this. This is the limit of our body.

Why do our bodies have such limits?

The picture comes from Tuchong.com

This is mainly because our cells have a total number of divisions. There is a genome in our cells, which is carried on chromosomes. Every time a cell divides from one to two, the genome inside also changes from one copy to two copies. In this process, the replication of chromosomes actually has a counter, and it is a countdown counter. This thing is called telomere, which is located at the very end of the chromosome. After each replication, the telomere will shorten a little.

Think of something that keeps getting shorter, like a counter that's counting down? When the telomere disappears completely, the cell can no longer replicate.

It is precisely because all our cells have a limited number of assignments that it is impossible for us to survive indefinitely. This is our biological limitation.

Of course, you may think that since we can delay aging and treat diseases from a biological perspective, but we cannot avoid aging and immortality is impossible. On the contrary, is it possible for us to find a means of immortality through other methods besides biological methods? For example, "The Wandering Earth 2" raises a question worth thinking about - digital immortality. The so-called digital immortality means that our earth is facing a disaster and humans have nowhere to escape. What should we do? Upload everyone's consciousness into a very powerful quantum computer, and then obtain immortality in a virtual way in the world of the quantum computer.

In fact, this topic was not discussed until the movie appeared. It has been discussed in many science fiction works before. How do we view this issue? In fact, from a scientific point of view, this issue may not be able to solve our immortality problem.

Why do we say that? Let's think about it. A computer is actually a machine that uses electronic devices to perform logical operations. In other words, if our consciousness is uploaded to a computer, whether it is a current computer or a so-called quantum computer in the future, then what exists in it is still some logical thinking and logical judgment. But think about it, are logical thinking and logical judgment equal to you? This is definitely not the case. In fact, the reason why we are human beings, as emotional animals, is that we are not just logical.

This is about animals. For example, how does an animal make a judgment? We know that animals have never taken elementary school math classes and may not have logical thinking, but how do they make judgments? In fact, some animals may have some slightly complex thinking, but regardless of whether they have complex thinking or not, all animals can make some simple judgments. For example, there is a fawn that is very thirsty. It is standing on a hillside, hidden in the dense forest. At this time, there is a pool of water at the bottom of the hillside. If it wants to drink water from the pool, it can solve the problem of thirst, but the area around the pool is very open, which is a dangerous place that is very vulnerable to attacks by other carnivores.

What will the deer do? Will it drink water or not? In fact, the judgment at this time is completely based on an emotion. Why do I say that? If it does not drink water, it will feel very thirsty. This thirst will drive it to have a desire for water. When you are very thirsty, when you drink water, don’t you feel very refreshed? This is an emotion.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that there are carnivores there, which may bring it a kind of fear. Now it depends on whether its desire for water is stronger or its fear of carnivores is stronger. If it makes a choice between the two, it can decide whether to go down to drink water or not.

In fact, think about it, many decisions we make in life are also based on emotions. For example, when we decide to tell a little lie and not tell our parents that we have done something wrong, it is the emotion of fear that helps you make the decision because you are afraid of being criticized by your parents.

Similarly, when we really want to do something, for example, I decide not to do my homework first and play games first, is it the joyful mood brought by playing games that drives you to make the decision? So you see, in fact, we humans still cannot escape the so-called seven emotions and six desires, so these things are still our emotions that help us make decisions.

Some people say, I think I am a very rational person, I rely on my logical thinking to make decisions. We know that our frontal lobe is actually mainly responsible for logical thinking. There was such a patient who unfortunately suffered from brain cancer. When the brain tumor was removed, the connection between the frontal lobe and his emotional area was interrupted. What was the result? The result was that the decisions he made became very strange, and he could no longer use these rational attitudes to look at himself, but it did not prevent him from using rational attitudes to look at others and the things around him.

So you see, as long as something involves ourselves, then emotions will definitely influence our decision. Our ancients have a saying, "If it does not concern you, you should not care about it." But what happens if something involves yourself? Those who are involved are confused, while those who are on the sidelines can see things clearly. This is actually caused by our decision-making mechanism.

Let's go back to the issue of digital immortality. Even if there is a computer that can store all our logical thinking, that is, the thinking of the frontal lobe, can the computer also store your emotional changes, your endocrine changes, and your hormone changes? In fact, it is not possible. So at least I personally believe that even if there is so-called digital immortality in the future, the consciousness of that digital immortality is definitely not equal to your consciousness.

This article is a work supported by Science Popularization China Starry Sky Project

Author: Ye Sheng

Reviewer: Tao Ning (Associate Researcher, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Produced by: China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.