In the here and now, this is not a concept all that hard to believe when technology and culture are in such sync which one another. There are robots that can clean your floors for you and music 'generators' that can supposedly tell you what music you will like. It is very likely that the computer could become as smart its creator like a digital Frankenstein that goes off on a scientist that went too far. To say it is alive and kicking would be an understatement. That being said, for some of the most thoughtful thinkers of our generation there has been a fundamental shift in what it is to be human. In some of Kurzweil's more controversial ideas on the side of singularity are themes of immortality and a digital body. The belief is that it will be possible one day to make the human body digitized, reliant on electronics and therefore be able to live forever; the brain will be downloaded. Sounding like something out of a bad sci-fi movie but theoretically if it were possible, would we even still qualify as human?
Under further investigation the concept of what it is to be human relies not so heavily on life as it oddly enough, does on death. What do we demand as humans? We seek knowledge of all, easy access to all, meaningful human to human relationships, and the primal, instinctual will to simply, live. If these basic elements of the human experience are taken away or replaced, how should we function, as cumbersome animatronics? Our consciousness would still remain but our bodies may not and that poses yet another question in this separation. If we did not have a physical body, (i.e. the embodiment to our consciousness), vanity need not apply but, would we become totally disenfranchised to the world around us, (ex. environment, other mammals)?
The human needs to die in order for him to live because every story needs an ending. If we were to all live forever, electronically or otherwise we would suffer many pains. An obvious one would be conglomerating under a mass boredom, achieving things with no deadline and having all the time in the world. It is also true that "...a disembodied mind will quickly get depressed." Baudellaire brings up the concept of constant comfortability where people, without some kind of drama, etc. will have no drive to do anything in life. Why should they when everything is perfect as it is? This relates back into the theory of a man without mortality for if he does not have death looming over him, he will lack motivation. The moral of the story is that life is full of hardships but without them we would not be ourselves but instead something mutated and not of this world.
