2016-03-10 – I’m not comfortable with my body.

I’m not talking about body shaming. I’m talking about BODY SHAMING. I’m talking about a millennia-old angst about the human condition. You see, we all inhabit a body that is powerless, suffers pain, and dies. Why can’t we be more like gods?

Why can’t we live without bodies?

If you are religious, you probably believe that we can and that we will. When we die, so the story is told, we will live again in heaven where we will . . .

It’s best not to think about that.

If you are not religious, you may have hope that we will someday upload our consciousness to the cloud where we will . . .

It’s best not to think about that.

Hopers for artificial intelligence immortality got a boost this week when Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo beat a top player of the most complex board game in the world: Go. More complicated than chess. So, if the day ever comes that we can upload our consciousness, we’ll be able to play Go and chess.

For an eternity.

The thing about losing your skin is that most of the things that make life worth living have to do with having a body. Sex. Gone. A family. Gone. A fine meal. Gone. Sports. Gone. Music. Gone (remember that you need something to vibrate and ears to hear it). Art. Gone.

The process of migrating to the cloud is already underway. But what is it that we put on the cloud? Images of bodies. If we ever leave our bodies behind, all we’ll have will be images.

And endless games of Go.

I think I’ll keep my body after all.