Questions of philosophy to life

I wanted a thought provoking question, so I decided to look for one on this wonderful tool we call the internet, "questions of philosophy to life" was what I searched for, here is what I got: https://conversationstartersworld.com/philosophical-questions/

It's true that I personally prefer thinking of life after death, as I feel it's limitless. But let's first talk about life in our current era, big advances have been made in the last few years. Narrow AI, cryptocurrency, reusable rocket parts for space travel to Mars, Quantum computing, multiple ways to cure disease as well as methods to enhance and stretch the lifespan of people, just to name a few of the things humanity has been working on. My belief is that by the time I die of natural causes, I will have a choice, to either die or to upload my consciousness into a machine or perhaps an AI. Hereby lies a question that I wanted to think about: Is immortality of the soul more important than immortality of the consciousness? 

Sadly, we still do not know what makes us human, but we enjoy differentiating ourselves from animals by using words as reason, logic and consciousness, but we are after all not very different from one another, meanwhile when talking about machines more specifically about AGI Artificial General Intelligence we separate ourselves by using concepts as soul and life. 

What is truly alive would the next question be? Are you as alive as I am? Is the code/genomes/bacteria or mapping of the synapses(perhaps consciousness) what differentiates my alive from your alive? 

The first question however that I found, although not necessarily relevant with my own questions was: What harsh truths do you prefer to ignore? 

Immediately I had an idea. The question reminded me, like any good questions of other questions. Is ignorance bliss? Would you take the red pill or the blue pill from Morpheus? 

I am talking of course about the Matrix trilogy which I recently watched. 

Morpheus himself in the Greek mythology stands for the God of Dreams. We choose to ignore that statistically speaking the odds of our world being a simulation become more and more likely as technology advances. We already have a simulation of our universe. 

Would it be that weird to find the resources to simulate humans? What would be the next step? 

We should not forget that ethics should be involved when creating or simulating life. Shouldn't you feel as responsible for the children starving in Africa in the simulation as well as in our

world. Movie recommendation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtYdZkPmFoU. 

Would you attempt to eliminate all crimes? Would it be better to simulate a non-reality to first test the reaction of humans under pressure or under change?

Back to the question itself as the simulation theory remains for now just a theory. Firstly, there are universal truths and personal truths. It's hard to deny a universal truth, for example "the earth is round" but it is equally as hard to deny personal truths like existence of God. But if you were to ask me, the only truth that I ignore is that life is devoid of meaning. We came into existence just to evolve and procreate. There is no meaning in one action especially when thinking about parallel universes

where the action itself has exact opposite outcome, and an individual although able to impact multiple lives is still just an individual, and as much as I like thinking that every life matters the world seems to wake us up by showing us that every legacy is finite. Sadly, this subject got dark fast. What do we do while ignoring this harsh truth? 

We embrace Hedonism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonism, we take pleasure in the physical world and in its goods. We try to maximize happiness, process that in turn doesn't help the advancement of society but is our primary goal even while not realizing it. Furthermore, it's impossible to reach a maximum of happiness, there is no way of knowing when you reach your personal limit. 

What happens then? 

The pursuit continues, and the reward seems ever so distant, we try harder to bend the world around us through sheer effort which many times feels like it wasn't worth the reward. We are stuck in a cycle, every one of us who can't find their balance in life. Another goal of life is earning or having more than the people in your social circle. This is the driving factor of competition but also a trap of society.

Another philosophical question debated since ancient times is whether humans have free will. There are a few scenarios that we can follow here. 

If the universe is cyclical does everything happen the same way every time? 

It always starts with a Big Bang and ends with a Big Crunch for example. Another scenario is that God made everything in conformity with his divine plan. Here we can add that God is all knowing, so He should know already everything that will happen therefore eliminating free will. Of course, here should be noted that we have the free will to believe in his existence or not, although that could be predetermined as well. Another thing to consider is how fast the brain sends impulses. The brain itself is faster than thought itself, we become conscious of things without dwelling too much on the subjects, it's almost like the brain would have an answer or the synapses configured for every task we choose to make in life. Of course, some training is required, as nobody can learn everything, but the

majority of your every day to day interactions are considered by the brain and automated. Lastly, if this were to be a simulation, the simulation itself would have meaning, not the individual, we could be mere puppets in a greater plan but then even our small interactions between one another wouldn't those be simulated in advance.

How could a simulation do that? 

With Big Data, there is no need for imagination here, although that could be one of the few things that would not be predetermined. This Big Data could include all information about whom you talked with, books you downloaded, purchase history and everything that could be stored as information. Lastly, one thing that made me doubt the possibility that we have free will is the wavicle experiment. When observed an electron or other particles are shot one at a time through a double slit depending if the experiment is observed or not the wavicles can act either as particles or waves, this is not dependent on time as when observing the trajectory in reverse the outcome is the same. So, depending on the existence of an observer the particles act either as particles or as waves. This means that the wavicles interact with one another in a predetermined fashion when an observer is placed or not to follow the experiment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9tKncAdlHQ. 

What does this mean?

If there is no observer for our actions or no recordings we might have free will, while not having in the opposite scenario. This reminds me of a saying: 

“If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound?". 

In other words anything that is not observed does it really exist? 

While on the same topic, another interesting question is: 

"What should be the goal of humanity?" 

Ensure the survival of species based on what we have concluded previously. However, let's also look at the half full part of the glass. I would say Creation. We are here to create circumstances,

children, art or even AGI another purpose could be Discovery, we are here to discover the laws of physics that surround us, to find out what dark matter is but also discover happiness and fulfilment. Exploration could be another goal of humanity, to reach out to other planets, maybe aliens but to also explore our inner selves through meditation.

Who am I to limit our goal as humankind? 

I can just hint at some of the goals, perhaps too little, in the end I guess all we seek under different forms are pleasures and knowledge. Lastly along all other things and along my earlier cynic that we are born just to procreate, this also is part of something bigger, leaving a legacy.

Now most people leave a legacy through their kids, some manage to have less lasting legacies or more lasting legacies, let's look at the writings of Greek philosopher’s or the military journal of Julius Caesar or art. The most lasting legacies are the ones documented or written down in history, but it's easier in our day to leave a legacy, everything can be stored digitally. Remember the dead. We managed to reach a level where our kids will have pictures online with their grandparents.

"How long will you be remembered for after you die?"