I was up on a mountain today. Not for sport – just for the sake of moving, doing the bare minimum to keep up. Norway is great like that – you don’t really need to “do sports,” just step outside and go for a run. Or do a hike. But I’ll never keep up with the trail runners, the ultra marathoners, the folks whose entire identity seems fused with motion.
I find it fascinating how deeply we feel we are our bodies. Some people live there completely – athletes, dancers, movement people – they relate to their physical form like it’s the main character. For some others, it’s more like a co-worker. Reliable (sometimes), but maybe not quite me? And once you start separating the two – the body self and the thinking self – it changes how you see things. Like the difference between your planning self and your doing self. Same idea.
Today’s virtual reality doesn’t fool the body yet. We don’t feel like we’re somewhere else – not really. The sensory fidelity isn’t there. But it’s getting closer. Training simulators are getting really good in the amount of detail. Games too. Digital worlds are filling in, detail by detail.
So, question: when the tech gets good enough – when your brain can live in the cloud, when your “body” is just a form you pick from a dropdown menu – what even is a human then? Is this coming in 100 years? 500?
And when that happens – will we stop equating being human with having a body?