The Answers
1. Does the soul exist?
The soul, as defined herein, certainly does exist. However the soul is not made up of matter; it is an informational construct wherein the states and arrangements of matter and energy are used to represent the information. The informational definition of the soul allows for the existence of both the dynamic living soul and the disembodied static soul.
2. Is reincarnation possible?
Reincarnation is possible in almost every way that has ever been imagined. However, just as a program needs a compatible computer as its host, a soul needs a compatible brain-body or a compatible computer system in order to function in a complete fashion. It is possible that some of the parts of the soul can function in host of less or just different capabilities. Thus it is possible that a part of the human soul could function in a host, such as a cow, that though incapable of human thought could still be capable of other intellectual processes that would reflect parts of a human soul. It seems that the only high quality hosts (the brain-body) for a reincarnated soul would have to be either a living clone of the original brain-body, or a similarly accurate computer system that simulates the mind (brain) and body and also provides the external environment.
3. Can the soul survive our bodily death?
Today, the answer is that certain aspects of the soul can survive bodily death. This survival is normally in the static form; writings, paintings, music, sculpture, photos, movies, videos... However, whenever a young orphan remembers his father and says to himself “What would dad have done?” then he is being the host to a fragment of his father’s dynamic soul. When a pianist can feel what Beethoven must have had in mind when he wrote the Appassionata, then a fragment of Beethoven’s soul becomes a dynamic entity while that pianist is playing Beethoven’s music. Eventually, it should be possible to capture in a computer system a sufficient fraction of a dead person’s soul so as to leave no doubt in the minds of those friends of that person who converse with that computer; no doubt that what they are talking to has the soul of their departed friend. There is no law of physics that stands in the way of recreating a clone with the original adult soul of the person cloned or of embodying major aspects of a soul in the brain of another person. The brain of another creature could be the host to certain parts of a person’s soul. A dog could host parts of a human soul that might be recognizable as reflecting parts of that person’s personality.
To say these things are possible is not to say we know how to accomplish them. What we are saying is that the laws of physics do not stand in the way -- therefore it's a matter of engineering and technology to accomplish what is clearly possible. We discuss possible steps that might allow the capture of the soul of a living person with no ill effects to that person in XXXX.
4. Can the soul exist separate from the body?
The answer is “Yes.” This, again, is a matter of technology. The technology to allow some parts of a soul to exist separate from a body has existed for thousands of years, and that technology has grown continuously up to the present. Today, records and movies tell us more about the soul of a contemporary but deceased singer than what we could experience in the past when all we had was narrative descriptions. Tomorrow, someday, technology will have advanced to the stage where instead of passively looking at a movie, we will be able to visit with holographic images or with robots that clearly prove that a computer system has captured the nearly complete essence of a particular human soul. We believe that a contemporary high end personal computer can have the computational resources to host the dynamic soul of one person in real time. This might require the addition of a few special purpose cards, similar in technology to very high performance display cards.
5. If there is a human soul, what kind of thing is it?
The human soul is an informational construct. It can exist in two forms, static and dynamic. We break down the human soul into three main components: P, Q and W. We can understand the kind of thing that a soul is by understanding the kind of thing that a computer program is. This is similar to understanding metabolism by understanding a steam engine. It is similar to understanding certain functions of organs in the body by understanding the functions of a chemical plant. A human soul has various parts. Some are dynamic, functional parts, and some are fragments that are static. When one writes, paints or records a song, static fragments of that person’s soul are revealed in the record that is preserved. The life’s works of a prolific writer or musician are insufficient to reconstruct his or her entire soul but they do serve to narrow the possibilities. When one person understands and absorbs and performs the work of another person, such as when a musician studies and then plays a Mozart piano sonata, then a fragment of Mozart’s soul becomes dynamic again.
6. What is the relationship between the soul and the body?
The soul is an informational construct that is made dynamic by the living body that serves as its host. The body, which includes the brain, is a necessary part of the definition of the soul. A particular body, differentiated from the generic body, is not just the host, but is reflected in the intellectual workings of the soul. A soul cannot be completely understood without understanding its host body and the environment that encompasses the body. While the soul of a deceased person, made dynamic through the workings of a computer host, cannot function in the exact manner that it did while the person was alive, it can be close, and surely recognizable. As the technologies required for this are developed, souls will be hosted with better and higher fidelity.
7. Does a human’s soul have existence before birth or conception?
In a word, yes. A dynamic soul grows and learns and flowers into maturity. Our definition of the soul encompasses the entirety of the informational construct. This implies that the part that exists before birth or conception is but a fraction of the mature soul. The part that exists before conception has many avenues into the nascent soul: through DNA, environment, nurture, education and socialization. Of course, in addition to the DNA, one’s parents normally have a great impact on the development of a soul. Similarly with one’s teachers. When you first hear a memorable new melody, a small part of the composer’s soul becomes a part of your soul. A tremendous amount of information from the past can be incorporated into the soul. From the informational viewpoint it is correct to say that many fragments of an adult soul existed before conception, and were incorporated into that adult soul starting at conception and continuing over its lifetime. A measure of a man’s or woman’s life and of the progress of society may be the answer to the following question: “What soulecules from this person’s soul survived his or her death and how many other souls have incorporated some of those soulecules?”
8. After death, might compensation for the inequities of life be visited on the soul?
While according to EB, the “...constant prosperity of the wicked, and the frequent unhappiness of good men in this life, must convince every thinking person, that there is a future state wherein all will be set right, and God’s attributes of wisdom, justice, and goodness, fully vindicated...”, there is no evidence that this has been happening. What is quite remarkable is that it may yet happen; and happen in a way even superior to what was imagined.
