The Human Question

Functionalism: I don't yet understand that well, but it's the claim that the same form (as in consciousness) can be instantiated in different types of matter (neurons, computer program). Non-reductive/asymmetric physicalism: somethin' I'm conjuring up, says that while a given state of matter corresponds to one and only one form (to a given neural state there corresponds only one cognitive state)... while all that is true, its converse is not, for the same cognitive state can be instantiated in more than one condition of the same form.  There is a kind of parallel between the two, except for the fact that the latter doesn't indicate whether many different types of organisms (or machines) may have the same cognitive state.

In his book on immortality, Dinesh makes a very savy response to the claim that the desire for life after death is mere wish fulfillment. He points out that belief in life after death is found in all cultures--even in societies that expect the next life to be quite dreary. So, carrying the ball where my reading of/listening to/ him left off (he might make this point later on), I would ask why even such societies posit life after death? What is it in human nature that makes it so natural to think this way? It cannot be merely desire if the next life is not depicted as all that desirable. Also, I would point out that those who believe the human brain is a computer talk about downloading a program for your brain and thereby enabling you to continue living after apparent bodily death... apparently this sort of wish fulfillment is okay, as long as you have made science your religion.