Theoretical and Practical Paralogisms of Digital Immortality

Abstract

ABSTRACT Modern and contemporary transhumanism has seen a recent rise in academic and popular relevance; specific naïve metaphysical ideas, such as immortality, have returned with this rise. This article refrains from any ethical or political assessment of transhumanism. Still, it critiques the exact metaphysical or idealistic nature of transhumanism and its pursuit of digital immortality: the idea that, through technological advancements, precisely in Artificial General Intelligence, an immortal virtual “self” will become possible. The article follows the form of Immanuel Kant’s “Paralogisms” from the Critique of Pure Reason, where Kant is concerned with the substantial, immortal nature of the soul and its experiential impossibility. The article will offer theoretical and practical paralogisms (false logical inferences), arguing that the transhumanist claim that digital immortality is possible fundamentally stems from two incorrect major premises. The first concerns the substantial nature of information, which informs the theoretical paralogisms; the second concerns infinite transformation (pure plasticity), which informs the practical paralogisms