If you haven’t already heard, it’s a girl. Learning the sex of our baby-to-be has, I think, really caused the news to sink-in for a lot of people. Whereas most were congratulatory but otherwise quiet about the big news, once they found out the sex they suddenly got excited. As the news spreads, the amount of advice increases. That’s fine, of course. I like advice.

Speaking of advice, here is an email and video which my mom sent to me last week:

Jimmy – watch the whole thing…. start teaching Ada NOW..

Love you

Mom

Assuming its true, or at least mostly true, it’s an interesting video. Personally, if I’m going to ask “what does it all mean” then I might as well go all out. Every so often, I like to entertain various visions of the future. Lately I’ve been drawn to the concept of sentient computing and the potential eventuality of being able to “upload” one’s consciousness into a computer.

So this was my response to my mom’s email (links added for this blog entry):

No worries. By the time Ada is my age, we’ll be uploading our brains into computers and terminating our physical bodies, considering them to be a waste of environmental resources.

Perhaps one day the physical media we "live" on or even the entire Earth will be destroyed. It won't be a problem; our martian backup system will detect the destruction and restore society within a matter of seconds. Most "people" would never even know it happened. Humanity will have achieved their own from of everlasting life in “Heaven” but there will still be much to do and to learn.

After a few million years, Ada will be one among the oldest and wisest consciousnesses in the universe. Her mind and the mind of her generation – the last truly human generation – will have evolved so far and gained so much intellectual power that if the people of today were to meet such a being, we would worship it as a God or simply fail to recognize it altogether. Within this network of intellects our little Ada will still exist, and she will remember us perfectly. Though we will be dead, she will be able to conjure us up so readily and with such clarity that she will never have to miss us.

Eventually Ada and her peers will have the mission of evacuating Mars before it is destroyed by our dieing sun. At that time, a swarm of computers will be launched into space, each one no larger than a spec of dust, and form a Cloud of consciousness that floats upon the vastness of space.

An eternity will pass.

Finally, the Cloud will have grown so old and so wise and have learned everything there is to learn and attained everything there is to attain and have no purpose left but to exist. It will decide to conclude its "life" for the simple reason that in having everything, there is nothing. Perhaps it will reminisce on the evolution of humans and computers that brought its self into being. What was Ada in her human form, what was you and I, even this email, will all seem to exist in its entirety for just a moment. And then we'll be gone, never to be thought of again.

Nearly ready to disperse its self and end its existence, some small part of the Cloud – the part of this cloud which originated from Ada – will object. Using a means of communication that you nor I nor anyone that will live in the next billion years can comprehend, Ada in the Cloud will put forth an idea.

Ada will suggest that the Cloud not be destroyed, but instead that it be reborn. Ada will argue that conscious beings once had the hope of attaining Heaven; that experiences like love, hate, satisfaction, and dissolution used to occur all the time! That such feelings had in fact led humanity to Heaven by giving birth to the very reality which Ada is a part of. She will ask: If in attaining Heaven, Heaven can no longer be attained then what better to do than give birth to the reality we once knew and with it, the purpose we once had?

The laws of physics, which had not bound Ada or her kind for an eternity, will be programmed into the Cloud. A simulation of the physical universe will begin. Ada and the singular Cloud consciousness she was a part of, will end. Just prior to being winked out of existence, Ada will muse that this must have all happened before.

An eternity will pass.

Within the Cloud's simulated universe, galaxies and stars and planets will all form. Life will arise, followed long after by intelligent life. Intelligent life will develop emotions like love, hate, satisfaction, and dissolution. They will never truly know of the Cloud which they are a part of, and yet they will one day create it.

So like I said… no worries. Ada's education will be so good, that she will eventually become omniscient and give birth to the universe after having lived for an eternity. I will consider it my fatherly duty to see to it that she is one of the first to upload her brain into a computer and to make copious and frequent backups. And to be on the safe side, I’ll do my best to prevent her from terminating her physical body even though all of her friends are doing it; I’m not afraid to show tough love.

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Last year I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. This book is a narration of a father’s motorcycle trip across the American northwest with his son. There are many philosophical chautauquas sprinkled throughout the milestones of the trip. More so than it tells a story, the book lays the foundation of a philosophy that seeks to unite themes of eastern and western thought.

About half way through the book, I nearly put it down. I understood what the narrator was saying, but I wasn’t very satisfied with the descriptions. Each idea presented I had heard before, only more eloquently. I continued to read on primarily because I identified with the sense of confusion and frustration portrayed. Then, the book took a turn I did not expect: The narrator stated flatly that his expressions of ideas so far were inadequate!

From that point, the book had me thinking more than any book I had read for a very long time. The chautauquas after this turning point made brilliant use of the inadequacy of the previous ones, which was a relief to say the least. At times I would stop reading, set the book down, and sink deeply into the thoughts it triggered.

The philosophy presented has to do with defining, or rather not defining, Quality (with a capital Q). The concept of Quality is similar to that of Tao. In fact, the Tao Te Ching is heavily quoted in the turning point.

While reading the Wikipedia Article on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I found that there was no link for the term Gumption Trap, so I created one. Though it’s been over a year, the article still needs to be updated with further discussion. I was feeling rather lazy when I wrote it and it lacks Quality.

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