This is a key development in my personal plan for Futurama-style immortality. Glass jar futures, anyone?
Apparently in my VR simulation, most major Linux distributions have adopted systemd and the UK is leaving the EU.
So trippy! You’ll never believe mine though, Donald Trump is president of America and Dick Cheney outlived Robin Williams. I think I got a bad vat.
Even if you could run your brain without your body the result would nothing like the person you are now - some traits would be preserved for sure - but imo calling that essence ignores how much subconscious/physical are a part of your personality.
Simply taking a brain out of a body and then "keeping it on life support" would be horrendous. Think of it, your brain is very much alive with zero stimulation for a theoretical eternity. That would likely drive people insane.
My point was if the technology became sufficiently advanced that we could say wire the brain into an artificial body where we could still see, communicate, maybe even feel pain and pleasure.
Think of the numerous people with severe physical handicaps who might actually find something like this to be an improvement over their current living situation.
If we ever get to that point you're almost a completely different entity from the person you were in your body, you could share some of the memories and logic but even your perception on them would change drastically along with your self image changes.
I really don't see how then I would be a completely different entity. It would just be me, but in a better body in my case. As someone who suffers from a degenerative disease that causes chronic pain which only continues to get worse over time I would welcome transplanting my brain into an android-like body where I could continue to live, albeit without the suffering.
Needless to say, it was possible to go to some pretty dark places with this. Imagine, for example, feeling like you had to urinate but never being able to relieve yourself for all eternity. And that was one of the "lighter" abuses.
shiver
And also In Fallout 4: Nuka World, where the Walt Disney expy character was just an immortal head in a tiny Vault-Tec bunker.
Good news everyone!