University Receives $5 Million Grant To Study Immortality

Hugh Pickens writes "Humans have pondered their mortality for millennia. Now the University of California at Riverside reports that it has received a $5 million grant from the John Templeton Foundation that will fund research on aspects of immortality, including near-death experiences and the impact of belief in an afterlife on human behavior. 'People have been thinking about immortality throughout history. We have a deep human need to figure out what happens to us after death,' says John Martin Fischer, the principal investigator of The Immortality Project. 'No one has taken a comprehensive and sustained look at immortality that brings together the science, theology and philosophy.' Fischer says he going to investigate two different kinds of immortality. One is the possibility of living forever without dying. The main questions there are whether it's technologically plausible or feasible for us, either by biological enhancement such as those described by Ray Kurzweil, or by some combination of biological enhancement and uploading our minds onto computers in the future. Second would be to investigate the full range of questions about Judeo, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, and other Asian religions' conceptions of the afterlife to see if they're theologically and philosophically consistent. 'We'll look at near death experiences both in western cultures and throughout the world and really look at what they're all about and ask the question — do they indicate something about an afterlife or are they kind of just illusions that we're hardwired into?'"

Comments

Re:The Answer for $5M

[gweihir]

'People have been thinking about immortality throughout history. We have a deep human need to figure out what happens to us after death,' says John Martin Fischer,

Nothing, You're dead.

Not necessarily. Obviously the religious fairy-tales are just that, i.e. whatever people need to hear to strengthen the meme-infection. But there is room for reincarnation without the religious connotations. Consciousness and life itself are still not understood at all, so there is room for speculation. Obviously, the body (brain) plays a part (for many the dominant part, it seems), but it is not enough to explain what is observable. Still, no need to do "immortality" research, everybody finds out sooner or later what happens. I guess these 5M just show that quite a few rich people live pathetic lives and know it.

One kind is impossible. The other, inevitable.

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

Immortality through some after-life like concept is impossible. First, there is no god. That's not my opinion, that is a fact. I'm not gonna go into details there, but it's been discussed enough, and every single argument for the existence of a god has been disproved. Anyone still believing in that is simply refusing to reason. So, no afterlife.

Now, immortality through human technology is inevitable. It'll happen one of two ways: Either through bio-engineering, or through some kind of memory download. I consider the later the most likely scenario. I think a lot about the concept of the last generation. Or the first one, however you want to think about it. Essentially, that generation that will be alive at the right time to see that technology be born. They will be the last generation of humans that can actually die. How that tech will change society is the realm of science fiction.

Now give me my 5 million dollars.