Would you like it if your mind is taken out of your aging body and put into a young, healthy athlete?
I was reading Sally, a short story written by Isaac Asimov. Sally is an “automatobile,” Asimov’s word for today’s self-driving cars. Sally is retired and lives with similar aged automatobiles in a “farm,” purpose-built for retirement. Sally and other cars have a “positronic brain,” another of the fictional terms coined by Asimov. Having a positronic brain makes these cars sort of sentient.
An evil salesman comes to the farm seeking motors, which serve as brains of these cars. He intends to wire these motors to newer car models. When the owner of the farm refuses his proposition, the salesman asks an innocuous question – Would you not like it if your mind is taken out of your aging body and put into a young athlete?
This question made me ponder on how I would react if such a proposal is put forth in front of me…
My answer – NO
I believe mind is the soul of the body and that is where one’s conscience exists. Body is only a shell. Taking mind out of the body is neither doing any good to the body nor to the mind. The body is wasted and the mind is not better off either. It would still remember the pains, the disappointments, the dissatisfaction it faced when it was in the body of the aged person. Also, the innate characteristics of the mind would not change. The inferiority complex, fears, and other quirks remain the same irrespective of which body is hosting the mind.
So if I was asked, I would have categorically denied such an offer, just as Sally’s guardian did in the story.
Serene Times 