Second Life After Death?

Did you know that certain science minded forward thinkers confidently predict that within 20 years time human beings will be able to download the contents of their brain (possibly even their consciousness itself!) onto a computer?

Given the amazing prediction that a kind of 'techno' life after death may be possible, a vitally fundamental future purpose for virtual realities such as Second Life becomes apparent. Imagine if, after you have passed away, the contents of your brain were to be downloaded onto a server and attatched to a pre-prepared avatar in a virtual world. The avatar would look like you in every way (imagine what computer graphics will be like in 20 to 30 years!) and would, to all intents and purposes, be you. You would have life after death (assuming atheists are right). Living relatives could log into the virtual world and pay you a visit, or perhaps we would reach a stage were living people would chose to live in the virtual world instead of the real one.

Many scientists and technologists are speaking about a coming 'singularity' where technology and nature will become one and the same, with huge advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics and nanotechnology. People around the world are spending longer and longer amounts of time at their PC's, and many in online virtual realities... is it too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that we may eventually become one with the online world we play in as the nature of reality changes? And as computers themselves attain a state of self awareness will they allow us to have our second life after death? Or will they simply format the disk?