Religion aside; Logically, what happens after death?

[weltschmerz]

Originally Posted by tofur

This is assuming consciousness is dependent on a physical brain to exist, which is not proven yet. We don't know much about consciousness, your logic is all grounded on the presumption that we've got it figured out like we have guns figured out.

As far as needing physical eyes to see, you can see in dreams can't you?

Since we don't know for sure that consciousness originates from the body, it is possible that the body acts much like a TV, picking up consciousness and broadcasting it. If you damage your TV, it will affect the experience the TV delivers. It doesn't change the incoming signal at all. If this strikes you as ridiculous and un-logical, remember that people believed the earth was flat for a long time, and it was a totally logical stance to take based on the knowledge they had at the time.

When we assume that we know everything, we stop learning and progressing forward. Lots of people are clinging to traditional physical science and refuse to go where it's pointing (more specifically where quantum physics is pointing). This collectively holds us all back, luckily there are some that aren't doing so.

We know what happens to the physical body from an external perspective. Not a subjective one. The only knowledge we have of death from a subjective perspective is from people who have had near death experiences and are willing to talk about them. Subjective experience will never be able to be observed and measured like traditional science requires, so if you can only ever consider physical evidence then it's probably best to avoid subjects like this one.

First of all, the brain interprets what we see through the lens that is an eye. The brain stores memory and images, so we see in our dreams.
Secondly, people blind from birth do not dream in colour and do not dream the same way everyone else does. The don't have the same frame of reference.

[joenationwide]

Maybe it would be a more fruitful discussion to examine what is consciousness?
Is our consciousness our spirit? Our soul?
Because after all, when we ask what happens after death, we are really asking: "Will I cease to exist?"
If my body dies, does my consciousness die? Does my spirit or soul live on?


Is consciousness the same as a "soul"?

Our brain is made up of billions (or is it trillions) of biological neural networks, whose architecture is a result of billions of years of evolution (see TV show "Cosmos" for more info) carried in the code of our DNA. Our consciousness lives in our brain, but where does it come from? Does our consciousness becomes self-aware simply because the brain exists?

Let me suggest this idea: that once a brain exists, a consciousness comes into existence to occupy that brain.
The good news is that this will either be proven or disproven in the very near future.
Now that we are building machines with processing power rivaling our own brain power, we will see what happens with artificial intelligence. Due to Moore's Law, where computing power doubles roughly every 18 months, as soon as we can build machines to equal our own brain's computing power, the technology will quickly surpass it, giving machines the power to be several leaps ahead in the evolutionary timeline than we have achieved through biological DNA mutations. Therefore my thought is that AI will have just as much claim to being "alive" as we do. The only difference being biological vs. non biological. However, if we do have souls, then the AI would have souls, and perhaps if reincarnation were possible, we could come back as an advanced artificial intelligence? Pretty interesting thought.

Ok, so lets say consciousness exists only when a fitting vessel exists (a brain/body). So do we then truly come into existence when we are born and cease to exist when we die? Or do we have souls before and after we are human, souls that exist as pure energy, that become manifested in physical form as conscious beings once we are born on earth? This would open up the possibility for reincarnation, afterlife, etc. That can lead to more interesting discussions.....

Will we then continue to identify our-selves as human, or as something more eternal? Maybe our life as human being was just a vacation we took on a whim, a blink of an eye if your timeline is eternal.

[Inattentive]

There may be a couple of possibilities one where absence from the body presence with the Lord (what is that timeline
immediately or at universal judgment? Then some believe you "sleep" as scripture repetitively indicates perhaps for
centuries (who knew?) . A person sleeping a 1000 yeas would be like a day. Then some without faith (sort of forget
religion ) you rot period end of story.

[louie0406]

Don't know and don't care. I'm focused on enjoying life. Not worried about what happens afterwards. Whatever does happen so be it.