{"id":178865,"date":"2023-12-22T16:23:31","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/digital-immortality-would-you-upload-your-mind-to-a-computer"},"modified":"2023-12-22T16:23:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:23:31","slug":"digital-immortality-would-you-upload-your-mind-to-a-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/digital-immortality-would-you-upload-your-mind-to-a-computer","title":{"rendered":"Digital immortality: would you upload your mind to a computer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DVvmgjBL74w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But what would it actually mean to transfer your mind from \u201cmeat space\u201d to cyberspace, and how could it be done? The basic idea rests on several assumptions, says Angela Thornton, a researcher at the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at University of Nottingham, who is also partnered with the <a href=\"https:\/\/carboncopies.org\/\"> Carboncopies Foundation<\/a>, a non-profit that focuses on \u201cwhole brain emulation\u201d and the creation of substrate-independent minds. \u201cIt assumes that we could replicate our brain [with] a certain level of understanding of how it works,\u201d she says. \u201cNot necessarily knowing all the detail, but enough to be able to emulate it.\u201d Then, she adds, we have to make the assumption that the \u201cmind\u201d (i.e. the abstract part of us that thinks, remembers, imagines and senses) naturally emerges from the structures of the physical brain.<\/p>\n<p>This is a lot to take on, which is partly why current brain emulation research is still stuck at the level of worms and, in more advanced studies, <a href=\"https:\/\/alleninstitute.org\/news\/scientists-recreated-part-of-the-mouse-brain-on-a-computer-and-showed-it-movies\/\"> mice<\/a>. Whether you agree with them or not, though, the arguments to take experiments further \u2013 toward larger mammals and, finally, humans \u2013 are quite obvious. For one, we could theoretically \u2018live\u2019 forever as a disembodied consciousness (or at least until the machines that hosted our virtual minds were destroyed), and continue interacting with our loved ones after they\u2019ve passed as well. It\u2019s possible that this could also go some way to solving the alleged <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/life-culture\/article\/56522\/1\/we-need-to-talk-about-breeding-kinks-in-powerful-men-elon-musk-nick-cannon\"> population crisis<\/a>, while limiting the impact of our physical bodies on the planet\u2019s finite resources.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there are plenty of important questions that need answers before any of this can actually happen. Below, Thornton helps us unpick some of the main constraints and controversies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>But what would it actually mean to transfer your mind from \u201cmeat space\u201d to cyberspace, and how could it be done? The basic idea rests on several assumptions, says Angela Thornton, a researcher at the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training at University of Nottingham, who is also partnered with the Carboncopies Foundation, a non-profit that [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,418,269,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-internet","category-life-extension","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}