"You've read those science fiction stories where humans manage to digitize the consciousness and upload themselves to some computer network. We do that, and our bodies will be nothing but antiquated dead media as far as our souls are concerned. It's not hard to imagine a few soulless bodies lying around between the piles of magnetic tape and flash memory cards in my office once we evolve our consciousness beyond the need for the flesh." "Really?" I asked. "I always thought it was the other way around. That the soul was just a function of the body—a means to keep it alive. Once our bodies find something more suitable to propagate themselves and are able to trade in these old souls, then it's we who become the dead media." That caught him off his guard. The professor sat with a blank expression on his face for a few moments. Then he laughed out loud. "True enough! A very radical idea at first blush, but from the perspective of evolution, I'd say yours is more correct. Perhaps it is I who was caught up in an antiquated notion of the human soul as something sacred and unique."
"Harmony" by Project Itoh, 2008
This. "Harmony" by Japanese Author Project Itoh is, in my eyes, the best book ever written since Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein". Because of discussions like this.
Because of thoughts that take a turn into a direction I have never heard of before. Because of conclusions that are at the same time absolutely novel, weirdly fascinating and devastatingly uncanny. Because of masterful foreshadowing.
Gosh. I really love this book.
