Two Stories: Company Promising 'Eternal Life' Expires. Head Transplant Within Two Years?

© 2014 The Wired Word
www.thewiredword.com

This headline last week reeked of irony: "This Start-Up Promised 10,000 People Eternal Digital Life -- Then It Died." The article beneath it told of Intellitar, a web service launched five years ago that promised its users "virtual eternity." For $25 a month, people could place on Intellitar an animated avatar loaded with elements that mirrored the user's real life and would continue in cyberspace, available to interact with the person's friends and relatives, even after the individual who created the avatar died.
As explained by editor Kashmir Hill in the article published on Fusion, "Customers uploaded a photo of themselves to Intellitar's "Virtual Eternity" website, took a personality test, provided a voice sample and then trained their avatars' 'brains' -- an artificial-intelligence engine -- by feeding it stories, memories and photos." The result was supposed to be "a digital doppelgänger that would live on even after [the user's] death," which the user's offspring, descendants and others "could talk to, even after [the user] went to the big database in the sky," Hill said.
But alas, after 10,000 people signed up and birthed their online clones, the company ran into an intellectual property dispute over the technology they were using. The resulting legal battle was lengthy and expensive, and in the end, Intellitar decided the cost of pursuing the suit was prohibitive, and shuttered the company.
Hill explained, "You can't achieve immortality if you're dependent on a company that might go out of business. [Intellitar's CEO Don] Davidson says some customers were angry that Intellitar shut down, and that their immortality was no longer guaranteed. While they could download the data they'd uploaded to a text or Excel file, they couldn't export their avatars, because as part of the settlement, Intellitar agreed to no longer use the technology that powered them."
A start-up from MIT called Eterni.me is now developing a similar service, but is only in beta at this point.
A second recent news item seems tangentially related: Within the next two years, an Italian surgeon is planning to attempt the first transplant of a human head onto a donor body, and a 30-year-old Russian man suffering from a fatal muscle-wasting disease is slated to be the first person to undergo the procedure. In the case of the this particular patient, the surgery, if successful, is simply to give the man a chance at a longer lifetime than his diseased body will permit. But could the procedure, if perfected, eventually be used to give people a second lifetime? Right now, such remains in the realm of science fiction, but it does open a line of thought about, if not eternal life, at least much-extended life.
Commenting on the announcement of the surgery, Dr. Hunt Batjer, president-elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN, "I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death."
More on this story can be found at these links:
This Start-Up Promised 10,000 People Eternal Digital Life -- Then It Died. Fusion 
Terminally Ill Man Set to Be First to Undergo the World's First Full Head Transplant. News.com.au
The Big Questions
1. While eternal life offered in scripture refers to real life after this one, the "eternal" life Intellitar offered was in this world and artificial. What reasons do you suppose Intellitar's customers had for signing on? Would you be interested in signing on for such a service? Why or why not?
2. What do you make of Intellitar CEO Don Davidson's comment that some customers were angry that Intellitar shut down, and that their immortality was no longer guaranteed? Do you feel that your eternal life is guaranteed? Why or why not?
3. Do you fear death? If so, how do you deal with that fear? If not, why not?
4. Does the creation of artificial human avatars create a threat to the Christian concept of human identity as unique? Our digital footprint would extend beyond our life here, but is that really life, and should it be something we shoot for?
5. Does the hope of entering heaven serve as a motivation for living faithfully now? Would you serve Jesus even if there were no promise of eternal life? Why or why not?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Ephesians 1:11-14 (The Message)
     It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
     It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free -- signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life. (For context, read 1:3-14.)
We've quoted this passage from The Message because it's a bit easier in that version to grasp what Paul is saying. We've also added two paragraph indents, and note that both start with "It's in Christ that ...." Notice too that the first paragraph deals with finding out "what we are living for," and the second paragraph, finding ourselves "home free ... [as] the first installment [or down payment] on what's coming."
Questions: What are you living for? How does the first paragraph above help you explain that? What do you hear for yourself in the second paragraph? How much of your life of faith is centered in the present? How much is anchored in the future?
Daniel 12:2
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (For context, read 12:1-4.)
It often comes as a surprise to people who don't regularly read the Bible to learn that in the Old Testament, there are very few references to the resurrection of the dead. In fact, in addition to Daniel 12:2, quoted above, the only other clear attestations to it in the OT are Isaiah 25:6-10a and Isaiah 26:19. There are a few other verses that can be interpreted as references to the resurrection of the dead, including Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:6; Job 19:25-26; Psalm 73:24; Hosea 6:1-3. However, the three clear references are quite late in the timeline of the OT and thus suggest that the resurrection of the dead to an eternal life was not part of the early formulations of Israel's faith.
Before these later developments in thought about afterlife, the OT does speak about death, of course, which was a reality of existence. But those who died were said to be "gathered to his [or her] people" (Genesis 49:33) or to descend into "Sheol" (Psalm 139:8), which was thought of as a repository where the dead went; it was marked by neither reward nor punishment. A "good death" in the earlier OT era was one where the person had lived in submission to God's rule and his or her normal life span had not been cut short (for example, Genesis 25:7-11).
The OT includes many other mentions of "heaven" or "the heavens" (for example, Genesis 1:1; 7:19), but in those cases, the term refers to one of the three cosmological divisions of the universe: the heavens, the earth and the waters under the earth (Exodus 20:4). In that usage, heaven/the heavens (sometimes called the "firmament") usually meant the visible sky, as in Genesis 1:8, but also occasionally meant the dwelling place of God, as in Psalm 11:4.
Questions: Why do you think the concept of eternal life beyond death for faithful human beings probably developed so slowly among people who were called to serve God? Most experts in the Hebrew scriptures agree that our ancestors in the faith did not believe in an afterlife, yet served God because God is great and worthy of service and praise. How much of your faith is dependent on an afterlife? Are you willing to serve God regardless of the prospect of a reward? Is your life of faith, or your life in general, lived for now or for later?
Job 18:14
They are torn from the tent in which they trusted, and are brought to the king of terrors. (For context, read 18:5-14.)
2 Corinthians 5:1
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (For context, read 4:16--5:10.)
Here are two verses -- one from each testament -- where the human body is described as a "tent." In the verse from Job, which is spoken by one of his friends, Bildad, what tears people "from the tent in which they trusted" is their demise. But Bildad is speaking especially about the wicked (v. 5), and for them, their passing brings them into the presence of the "king of terrors," Death itself.
In the verse from 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul speaks about departure from an "earthly tent" as well, but for those who have received Christ, the event takes them not to the king of terrors, but to a resurrected body and its eternal home.
By the way, what's being called a "head transplant" is actually a body transplant because the recipient's head is what remains the same, while it is (if it truly happens successful) attached to a donor body. Thus in such a procedure one "tent" would be replaced with another, but would still be a tent.
Questions: Why do you think Paul uses "tent" to describe our earthly body and "house ... eternal in the heavens" to describe our heavenly body? How might this verse relate, if at all, to head transplants?
Do you view heaven as a "fixed" existence, where nothing changes? Or does the idea of a new "building" suggest to you that there might be change in heaven, growth and movement?
What are the advantages to thinking of your life of faith as tenting? How are churches locked in place by thinking of themselves in terms of a building?
Hebrews 11:16
But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them. (For context, read 11:1-16.)
The "they" who "desire a better country ... a heavenly one" includes many Old Testament people, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah. Interestingly, these people all lived in the era before there was any developed understanding of heaven and eternal life. But here in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews includes these faithful people from that earlier era in the promise of eternal life and says they have a place in the heavenly city God has prepared for them. In other words, the mere fact that these people lived before the concept of eternal life had been established didn't exclude them from heaven. Rather, their faith in God includes them in eternity.
Questions: Is our faith directed toward the future or the present? Explain your answer. We often refer to someone who has died as having gone on to a better place. Do you think of heaven as "more of the same," like your present existence, but richer? How would heaven, in your opinion, be better than the present world? What would be changed?
For Further Discussion
1. Responding to the head transplant surgery news, Dr. Hunt Batjer, president-elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN, "I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death." What do Christians say is worse than death? Why?
2. Is aging a disease to be combated just like any other? Explain your answer.
3. Comment on this, from TWW team member Mack Crumpler: "I like the idea that by design we will not be on this earth forever -- and who would want to be? Our home is heaven, not here. A digital record or even a computer modeled after our character, knowledge, skills, love or whatever we think defines us as a human being will not be important to generations to come after our bones have dried. Our avatar would depend on the power of electricity [and the consistent payment of the $25 monthly fee] for its eternity. For the first few seconds of its reality it would be similar to you, but for the next billion years all the pages would be blank, nothing, period. Who wants that when you can have a life here on earth powered by faith, followed by an eternal life where the pages are not blank but full of joy and peace with the Father?"
4.Respond to this from TWW team member Liz Antonson: "My atheist friend, D., maintains that my (Christian) embracing the concept of bodily resurrection (made possible by Christ's death/resurrection) is no different than the ancient Egyptians' belief that prompted mummification and other preparations for the 'afterlife.' Both beliefs, according to D, are responses to anxiety ... the fear of no longer being and/or the fear of being reduced to decayed garbage/carrion.
     "Am I responding to the message of eternal life in Christ to assuage primeval subconscious fears, or is my spirit responsive to the Holy Spirit validating the promise of Christ when he said, '... anyone who is alive and believes in me will never die at all' (John 11:26, Phillips)?"
     How would you answer Antonson's question?
5. Pass out paper and pencils and invite your class members to imagine they are creating avatars online. Suggest that they write down the two or three most important aspects of themselves that the avatar should replicate. Have any who are willing share what they've written, and discuss the results.
6. Respond to Paul's words in Philippians 1:21-24: "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you."
Responding to the News
Consider what you would want your digital footprint to reflect if some of it does remain after you. In addition, consider what you want done with your personal digital information upon your death: What should be deleted? What should be passed on to someone else for practical or sentimental reasons? The following article offers a good explanation, along with links to resources you might opt to use: How to Digitally Avoid Taking It to the Grave. New York Times.
Closing Prayer

O Lord, thank you that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us in your house. Help us so to live that when the time comes, eternal life is the next step for us. In Jesus' name. Amen.