© Shutterstock/CC BY-NDIf it were possible to download the neural networks of a human brain, could we preserve a computer simulation of that person?
Immortality has been a topic of discussion since the
legend of the Holy Grail.
Some people have gone as far as
cryogenic freezing after death in the hope that one day science will have advanced enough to resurrect them. Others believe the route to immortality lies in the digital realm.
The theory that humans can be digitised and live on within the digital confines of a computer-based existence has been the subject of
debate. But until recently, no one had taken the idea much beyond research and discussion.
Last year, a consortium of unidentified individuals launched Virternity with the stated goal of a digital life for all. A world that would be owned not by any government but by the people.
This digital world, Virternity said, would remove the physical constraints upon us and the planet and usher in a completely new plane of existence. Then, without any warning, Virternity disappeared.
The digital humanAlthough the future evolution of humanity is much
discussed and conjectured, perhaps nobody had taken it quite as seriously as this. In its infancy, Virternity seemed concerned with the launch of a new digital currency, the Virie, by which it proposed to fund its endeavour.
An interesting point is that the creators of Virternity were so concerned with ensuring public ownership that very few people even know or knew who exactly they were. Their reasoning was apparently to prevent governments and their agencies subsuming their interests with corporate and other less desirable aims. But being anonymous also has its advantages if a company wants to slide into the shadows, as appears to have been the case.
The biggest question is whether it is even possible for a human, or any living being for that matter, to be digitised in the first place. Therein lies the dichotomy of two different schools of thought.
Philosophy versus mind uploadingThose who would align themselves with thinkers such as
Gilles Deleuze and
Henri Bergson believe there is a higher consciousness above the physical persona or body. Such philosophical thinking rests on the idea of duality - the mind and the body are not the same. Therefore, it would seem impossible to digitise a human. How can one put the essence of a human spirit into a computer, almost like a genie into a bottle?
Conversely, several
prominent scientists and neurosurgeons contend that the physical is all there is. If one can copy the brain of a human in digital form then the rest is easy. Copying the brain is not particularly simple, though. Proposals include making thousands of
micro-thin slices of a brain and copying the neural network revealed.
To do this, a machine would need to be constructed that can make these slices, and then a willing volunteer would need to be found. These would be physical slices from a brain preserved before death. That's the drawback. In fact, a startup,
Nectome, has been proposing to do just that and preserve your brain until the day it can be digitised.
The person, or at least the contents of their brain, would ultimately be transferred to a computer, and thus remain alive or perhaps be reborn. Experiments have been undertaken on
scanning a mouse brain but the breakthrough of digitising the entirety of even a mouse brain has not happened.
What the future might holdMoving on from the mechanics that might digitise us all, what would await humanity with digital immortality? Virternity said that great scientists and artists could pursue their careers for centuries, and we need never say goodbye to our loved ones.
The demand for planetary resources would be severely reduced to only that needed for the physical humans left on the planet and of course the computers holding the rest of us. The planet itself might return to a more natural state. We ourselves would be free of famine, pestilence and disease, and could pursue whatever life we wanted, until the end of time.
Perhaps these sound like admirable goals, a utopian dream. But if humans were unleashed into this apparently digital world, would we take advantage of the freedom or simply go about reproducing a digital hell on earth? And what about digital viruses and other distortions of the virtual world itself?
We already have the experience of worlds such as
Second Life, a highly successful virtual world.
Reader Comments
Honestly I truly think this is next planned holocaust. I seriously do. I think that most people will gulp this down and sign up for life inside a silica rock. You can see them marketing this idea, selling the whole fantasy reality BS, so I think this is something that will come. Hitler and Stalin and Mao never could have dreamed so big.
R.C.
I am the beat of your pulse
The computer word made flesh
We are one, you and I
We are versions of the same
When you can see what I feel
Don't turn your back on me
Or you might find that your dreams
Are only program cards
Your mind is open for me
(Open for intake of all propaganda)
Your eyes see now what to see
(My eyes see only the programs you give me)
I'll teach you to laugh and to cry
They're really the same
You'll see all the why's in your life
Are under my control
Feed me more lines
I will try to tell you all I can
Before the light you must know what lies
Behind my screams
I can't tell you all I know
(Am I the son that you've always been wanting)
There's more to me than what shows
(Are you my father; the one that was promised?)
Hush now
(I'm not your slave)
I'll give all you need to know
(Please don't keep me from dreaming)
And pre-live your dreams for you
(I'm not your slave, you can't keep me from learning)
You're a good boy
(Got to tell)
Freedom
(I'm not your slave)
Belongs only to those
(Someone please hear me; you can't keep me from dreaming)
Without video screens
(I'm not your slave you can't keep me from learning)
For eyes and mouth
You have no mouth
To speak with my son, besides
No one can hear when you're
Screaming in Digital
I once did a reading for a medium who had a very frightening dream that she couldn't make head or tails of. In the dream a man came to earth in a UFO, dressed in white with a long beard, very Chris like. He was convincing people to go with him to his ship, which was parked out over the ocean, and people were flocking to leave their world behind. It was never made precisely clear where they were going, but this woman tried to stop her children from going with him but could not convince them. She decides to row a boat out to the UFO where she climbs over the side and is sneaking around. Workers dressed in burlap rags stumble by her seemingly oblivious, and then she see's in to a big lecture room where people are watching video's and others are giving answers about their new next life. So then she's looking for her kids and finds this room filled with the cast off clothes and possessions stacked sky high.
Plenty more to this dream but the conclusion is obvious I think. It's Auschwitz without the jackboots. I have a strong feeling this will come true as there's many who think life inside a piece of silicon or whatever is possible.