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Philosophical Themes Of Consciousness And Identity Essay

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Throughout this paper, I will use various sources to discuss the philosophical themes of consciousness and identity. These sources include, course readings, class discussions and two news articles. One of which has been written by Clay Dillion regarding a futuristic theme concerning the possibility of uploading our consciousness into a robotic medium. The other was written by Zoltan Istvan and investigates the possibility of artificial alien intelligence. I will also critically evaluate each argument in order to highlight any philosophical problems which may be present. Finally using my philosophical analytic skills and the work of renowned philosophers, I shall reference the essence of self.
Istvan’s article considers intelligence beyond human capability. He uses a great example of the variation between human and ant intelligence. He highlights that in a reversed scenario the human could be the ant and the alien could be the human. This would result in alien intelligence being more powerful than humans. With this increased intelligence, identity may vary. We often believe aliens to be green slimy creatures which travel around in spaceships. But this is not factual, this approach was created in Hollywood to make movies more interesting. How could we even contemplate the possibilities of alien identity, with our lessened intelligence? In fact, aliens could be …show more content…

Firstly, there is no concrete evidence which can prove alien existence. Their existence is based on predictions and theories. In one hundred years from now, or even in my lifetime, we may have answers due to technological advancements. But currently, we do not. However, evolution has caused immense changes in organisms over millions of years. So why would it stop at humans? This leads scientists to believe humans will evolve further, which could include many abstract properties which will differ from the human being in 2017. Perhaps, artificial

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