Artificial Intelligence: Humanity’s Fountain of Youth?

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the earliest occurrences in which we see man wanting to
achieve immortality. The story’s main character, Gilgamesh, searches for a way to prolong his
life after witnessing his best friends death. Emperors and powerful rulers in Asian empires
tirelessly searched for the secret to everlasting life. Spanish conquistadors ravaged lands at the
sake of finding the fountain of youth and the treasures the fountain offered. Sadly, most of these
men failed in finding the secret to immortality (Keach). However, technology is advancing
rapidly and many experts believe that we are on the brink of true artificial intelligence, a robot
with intellect that is equal or greater than that of a human. The existence of artificial intelligence
means many things for humankind, but should humans pursue immortality without knowing the
finer working about the human mind?

Throughout history stories, paintings, films, and songs have spread traditions and ideas from one
generation to the next. Immortality has been one of these ideas, however the thought of
immortality has been shown in an undivine and malicious manner even though immortality is
highly desired by many. Stories of soulless, immortal creatures such as vampire and werewolves
are mainly where we see the idea of the immortal being expressed. Klee suggests that as a
society we are revolted and uneasy about the idea of immortality due to its lack of reasonable
limits. The reason limits our growth as a person and goes beyond one's morals. This idea of
immortality is not accepted as many people believe that death is part of the status quo. However
the time of humanity fearing werewolves, vampires, and other immortal beings is fading away.
Movies such as Twilight, Monsters U, and Warm Bodies have changed the fear of the unnatural
into a pop culture sensation that many have praised. Robotics in fact has followed similar story
as immortal creatures.

Humans have a natural fear of the unknown, and robotic is no exception, yet we have a certain
curiosity and appreciation of the unknown. Events such as Y2K and films like the I Robot, The
Matrix, and the Terminator have all expressed the fear the humanity expresses toward machine
and artificial intelligence, but yet have been also adored by many. Even today in the workplace
we can see an uneasiness about the role of a robot. Tingly reveals that the owner of the factory
used tape to place a smiley face on the robot to make the robot seem less threatening to his staff.
The color of the robot was also a problem for the worker, as Tingly states, “Orange screamed
“danger”; yellow suggested “caution.” They settled on a neon-lime hue they dubbed “safety
green.” Tingly continues by stating the sounds coming from the machines also make the robots
seem very aggressive to the workers. The idea of this scary robot has come from our sense and
what our brain can interpret. However, we can contrast these robot with robots that we consider
sweet and harmless such as, Wall-E, Big Hero 6, The Iron Giant, and Optimus Prime. As humans
we are able to grasp the duality of robots and artificial intelligent, yet it is our consciousness that
makes us fear the unknown details relating to AI.
The human conscious is so complex that science is not completely sure about how consciousness
functions. As humans we possess a conscious mind and a non-conscious mind. Our conscious
mind includes our sensory functions, thoughts, plans, and our short term memory. However, our
unconscious mind provides humans with emotion, creativity, habit, relationship traits. So if
science is not completely sure about the complexities of the unconscious mind how can society
better understand this part of our consciousness. It turns out the society may have the answer to
better understand the complexity of the unconscious mind, the Ouija Board. The Ouija Board,
once a supernatural object, is now better helping science understand the unconscious mind than
better before. The Ouija Board is operated by the ideomotor effect, an effect on the human body
where one does not control movements, and movements happen voluntarily. The ideomotor
effect can help science better understand the brain. Researchers from the University of British
Columbia believe that this discovery can lead them to many different ways of understanding the
unconscious brain. With this technology they can ask, “...how the much and what the non-
conscious mind knows, how fast it can learn, how it remembers, even how it amuses
itself”(McRobbie). This use of this technology would allow scienientis to create consciousness,
yet will it be able to mimic our minds.What many people fear the most about modern
technologies is that is it being created to mimic the human body, yet as a society we lack
information about the human body. We want to ensure that technology benefits us, but are
concerned about the out comes of malicious AI.

Our desire for immortality has proven itself to be persistent, yet the question has seem to change
from is immortality achievable to when will immortality be achieved. Cryonics and social media
seem to be helping lead the way for humanity to achieve immortality. Both of these processes
lead to a state of immortality, they both involve uploading consciousness or detail into a
machine. Newton describes the process and effects of using a text messages and voice recording
to seemingly make a person immoral. This idea has been explored in many way. This theory of
immortality seems to play on the emotions of wanting to converse with the dead one last time.
We see in the theory in an episode of Black Mirror, a Sci-fi television series, when a young lady
decided to use the digital footprint of her husband to aid in her grieving. However, it is taken in
to a drastic turn as an android soon replaces her husband but does not carry the same actions and
personality as her real husband. Newton give us a real life example of immortality being
implemented in reality in her article Speak Memory. She reveals the story of Roman Mazurenko,
a deceased man seemingly able to be immortalized through a chat bot that uses his text messages
in order to mimic his thoughts. This however is not the only way science has envisioned human
immortality. Another way there are other ways that immortality is being pursued through
artificial intelligence such as uploading our memories and conscious into an android, or by being
uploaded in to a virtual reality. According to Dr. Pearson, anyone that will be under or the age of
40 by 2050 will be able to live forever. They will will have access to these different ways of
immortality. There will also be various different androids and simulation.
With the advent of many ways for humanity to reach immortality one must ask themselves is
one method of immortality better than the other, and yet is an everlasting life ethical. Is it ethical
to live when the world is facing overpopulation? Who decides when you will die? How do you
deal with an eternity of loneliness after your loved ones have died? Some cultures see death as a
celebration, while others leave a legacy in order to have an everlasting impact on the physical
world. In the case of Gilgamesh, the conquistadors, and rulers they all died, however they left a
legacy that will remain for generations. Maybe we are not desiring an everlasting life but, in fact
we maybe desiring an escape from the fear of what come after we die. One thing is for certain we
are nearing the intersection of immortality, yet which way to we go.

Works Cited

Al-Khatib, Talal. “Seeking Immortality? So Have Others...” Seeker, Seeker, 8 Apr. 2013,

www.seeker.com/seeking-immortality-so-have-others-1767387860.html.
Keach, Sean. “You Could Be Immortal by 2050.” NewsComAu, 18 Feb. 2018,

www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/want-to-live-forever-you-just-have-

to-make-it-to-2050/news-story/4c70508f0f48b6fdfb3ebed09ab85754.

Klee, Miles. “Ever After.” Lapham's Quarterly, 2013,

www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/ever-after.

McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez. “The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board.”

Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 27 Oct. 2013,

www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-history-of-the-ouija-

board-5860627/.

Newton, Casey. “When Her Best Friend Died, She Used Artificial Intelligence to Keep

Talking to Him.” The Verge, The Verge, 6 Oct. 2016, www.theverge.com/a/luka-

artificial-intelligence-memorial-roman-mazurenko-bot.

Tingley, Kim. “Learning to Love Our Robot Co-Workers.” The New York Times, The

New York Times, 23 Feb. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/magazine/learning-to-

love-our-robot-co-workers.html?smid=pl-share.