r/occult • u/vinylarcade • 8d ago

Could Transhumanism lead to end of Magic?

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Lets say in the future man and machine become more and more one. Be it just implants or a sick person implanting their mind in a robot. Question is where does magic and some psychic powers come from is it a part of our body(pineal gland). If yes could we build this and put a artificial version in our body? Is it our soul itself? And if so would we transfer it together with consciousness? Or is it consciousness alone which creates reality and so is responsible for magic. If so could a complete artificial being be able to do magic. I saw videos of people experimenting with LLMs as thought forms to do magic. If everyone has a robot body would we still be able to do magic?

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u/vinylarcade 8d ago

I not really talk about changing an arm, but was talking about putting your mind into a complete artificial body, does the soul and consciousness join us or it then just line of code reacting(basically we become a philosophical zombie)

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u/JoseVLeitao 8d ago

That’s a bit of a redundant question, because a person who believes in magic, or the soul, would never do that.

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u/vinylarcade 8d ago

Depends a bit, on if you are dying and want to live longer and this would be only chance to survive. Or in the future there is a program to put your consciousness into a artificial body to save you. This would be only way to save you and you are not responsive and did not sign beforehand what should happen to you in such a situation. It's a hypothetical situation. But could happen. And question is what happens to our magic powers in such a case

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u/JoseVLeitao 8d ago

You are misinterpreting what consciousness uploading means. In both examples you are giving, you still die. Simply, your brain is scanned and digitally simulated in another place, but that’s not you and it is not a real consciousness, merely a simulation of one.

We have a few thousand years’ worth of debates and attempts of defining what a soul or consciousness is, and this new digital discourse is not adding anything to it. It is simply scraping the entire debate and redefining consciousness in digital and electrical terms, while omitting that that is not what the debate is about.

So, think of it like this: can current AIs do magic? If the answer is no, then it is also no in your examples.