Why in the future we will not have our own "I"

Well, let's give our imagination full free rein: imagine a device for teleportation that will split the human body into atoms, distill them into digital format and send them to Mars in the form of data. On Mars, another device will take the data and convert it back to atoms in the same configuration as before fission on Earth, that is, in you. Or will it not be you, but your copy?

We have already taken the first step

It's hard to believe, but many of these technologies will appear in our lifetime.

Uploading a person to the Web seems fantastic nonsense, but we are already pouring a huge part of our life into social networks and clouds. Isn't this data a mold of our "I", a part of our personality?

Modern technologies allow you not only to declare yourself, they make it possible to edit, modify and present yourself in any light on the fly.

All conceivable and inconceivable boundaries are dissolved in information technology. What we own ceases to be material: music, photographs, videos, even money have long been transferred to digital format. Constant access to the Internet blurs the line between online and offline. Our memories are stored in the form of digital photos, statuses, comments.

The differences between biological and technical are being erased: all kinds of implants, artificial joints and limbs, other biotechnical combinations have already firmly entered our life and will take up more and more space in it.

The future of identity

The idea that everyone is a person and an individual originated during the Enlightenment. This happened largely due to the greatest technical achievement of those years - the printing press. Cheap accessible books allowed people to look into the minds and souls of others, to try on other people's images. The defining characteristics of a person suddenly became not only the type of activity and social status, but also ideas, views and aspirations.

In the 20th century, thanks to industrialization, production became so simple and cheap that people began to buy goods for pleasure, not out of necessity. Therefore, for most of the 20th century, a person's self-identification was mainly determined by what and how he consumes.

Today we are seeing more and more abstract types of self-identification. Even basic characteristics such as gender, sexual orientation, race, and physical appearance become highly relative and uncertain.

As technology advances at an ever faster pace, humanity runs the risk of falling into an endless crisis of self-determination.

There are three main areas of technology development that can fundamentally change the way we think about ourselves.

1. Genetic engineering and nanotechnology

These two technologies potentially open up endless possibilities for changing the human body: one day changing any part of it will be no more difficult than replacing a car part.

Genetic engineering may allow us to select the genes of our future children. Nanotechnology leads to the fact that it will be possible to implant microscopic computers in different parts of the body and even replace individual cells with their improved versions. And this is not to mention plastic surgery and other modifications of appearance, which will become even more popular and affordable.

2. Robotics and artificial intelligence

The growth of computer productivity and their reduction in price mean that sooner or later the most time-consuming and highly skilled jobs will be performed by machines with artificial intelligence. The work of doctors, accountants, officials and bankers will be automated. As a result, a huge part of the population will be left without work. And since a large part of our self-identification rests on the awareness of the value of what we are doing, the likelihood of a global epidemic of personality crisis is high.

3. Virtual reality

Virtual reality provides endless possibilities for changing images and changing personality in the virtual world. As it develops further, it will become so attractive that many will leave the real world forever.

Dawn of Techno Buddhism

A long time ago, Buddha made a sensation, declaring that there is no "I", but only our illusions and conventions. In a sense, technology supports this idea. The illusion of our own personality is so strong that we do not even realize how easy it is to change our idea of who we are.

If you think about it, all of our definitions of self are virtual. It may seem to us that the "real" we are who we are in the physical world. In fact, we just created a personality for ourselves that is convenient for us, because it gives us a sense of stability and predictability of the world.

Our offline “I” is no more accurate reflection of who we are than the virtual one, since our self-identification always depends on the situation and consists entirely of information.

The more technology allows us to manage information and change it at our own will, the more we will be able to modify ourselves - until nothing remains of the very concept of our own “I”.