Information Theory of the Soul

Abstract

This chapter examines the similarities between the techno-fantasies promoted by the modern spiritualist movement and the claims made by contemporary scientists and engineers with regard to the uploading of human consciousness onto computers. It argues that these similarities help to explain why spiritualist concepts, such as the survival of the soul after death and the possibility of communication with disembodied spirits, appear so frequently in contemporary science fiction narratives, which often depict the survival of human personalities as virtual subjects in cyberspace. Instead of celebrating these spiritual possibilities, however, science fiction narratives often represent simulated experience as a loss of true identity and agency, which more closely resembles the arguments made by the opponents of spiritualism in the nineteenth century. Spiritualist concepts thus remain relevant today because they continue to serve as a common language for representing and critiquing the effects of new information technologies.