SciAm: Why the "You" in an Afterlife Wouldn't Really Be You

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Shermer argues persuasively that there is absolutely no reason to suppose that conscious awareness can be continued after death of the physical body through technological means.

However, it is not obvious that everyone agrees with this view. The only authority on what is going on in your head is you - I suppose that you are experiencing the world in the same way that I am experiencing it but I have absolutely no way to verify this supposition. I recently came across a comment from a Redditor on the /r/singularity sub-reddit that said, "As long as the pattern of my beliefs and morality continues to exist after I'm gone, what difference does it make if my body is here?" Who am I to argue with this individual's valuations simply because I do not share them?

If - and this is a "big if" - there is some property of the Universe that allows our consciousness to "cross over to the other side", as it is poetically called, the only rational way to engage this property would be through some kind of gradual crossover. Suppose there is some Consciousness Translation Machine that allows me to "upload" into the digital cloud. Until I subjectively experience in the present what it is to be conscious in this digital cloud, there's no way I'm signing up for a one-way trip through the Consciousness Translation Machine. For me, this is indistinguishable from suicide. Apparently this is not true of everyone, based on what they verbally report. So, what you really need is a Consciousness Transition Machine that allows two-way trips to the other side and back.

I have a bone to pick with the author's closing paragraph:

Awareness of our mortality is uplifting because it means that every moment, every day and every relationship matters. Engaging deeply with the world and with other sentient beings brings meaning and purpose. We are each of us unique in the world and in history, geographically and chronologically. Our genomes and connectomes cannot be duplicated, so we are individuals vouchsafed with awareness of our mortality and self-awareness of what that means. What does it mean? Life is not some temporary staging before the big show hereafter—it is our personal proscenium in the drama of the cosmos here and now.

I respect Shermer's feelings and it appears that there are many people who feel as he does - the looming deadline of death drives them out of sedentariness into experiencing the world. But it does not have this effect on me. The imminence of my death has no emotive effect on me. It does not motivate me. It does not dispirit me. I am indifferent to it because it is inevitable, like gravity. And like gravity, its effect on me is limiting. I would accomplish more than twice as much in 80 years (from today) as I expect to accomplish in the 40 years or so of expected natural lifetime that I have. While I do not fear death, I do not share Shermer's feelings on the positivity of death and I know I'm not alone.