Humans could download brains for eternal life

[Still Waters]

Humans could download their brain on to a computer and live forever inside a machine, a Cambridge neuroscientist has claimed.

Dr Hannah Critchlow said that if a computer could be built to recreate the 100 trillion connections in the brain their it would be possible to exist inside a programme.

http://www.telegraph...ve-forever.html

[lightly]

we keep hearing about downloading our brains .. not sure any computer ever could function like a human brain . For one thing our brains are not stand alone units.. they are integrated with all of our other systems.

Maybe a computer could get angry or cry,, but would it be sincere? Could a computer ever really feel any emotion? We are more than DATA.

[psyche101]

we keep hearing about downloading our brains .. not sure any computer ever could function like a human brain . For one thing our brains are not stand alone units.. they are integrated with all of our other systems.

Maybe a computer could get angry or cry,, but would it be sincere? Could a computer ever really feel any emotion? We are more than DATA.

It is more than data, it is how the data is organised and interacts, that's the problem as far as I know, the number of neural connection is so huge the process is not viable. It would take several lifetimes to recreate all the connections.

How bizarre, just watched "Chappie" last night.

[DecoNoir]

Only if biological bodies can be grown soon after.

Sorry, but I like food and drink too much... and a few other biological functions.

[GodIsWearingBlack]

we keep hearing about downloading our brains .. not sure any computer ever could function like a human brain . For one thing our brains are not stand alone units.. they are integrated with all of our other systems.

Maybe a computer could get angry or cry,, but would it be sincere? Could a computer ever really feel any emotion? We are more than DATA.

Who's to say we're sincere when we "really" feel these emotions? They might "feel" real, to us, but that doesn't mean they are. In fact, there are those among us who don't feel emotion the same way as others, or understand it, etc.

[+OverSword]

Living forever may very well be counter to the actual purpose of life. We are not meant to be here forever and it is cowards that want it to last forever. If people do manage to live "forever" or vastly longer than a natural lifespan they may end up being spiritual retards, and IMO spiritual growth is the actual purpose of life.

Edited May 27, 2015 by OverSword

[paperdyer]

Will it really be living? More like existing as a computer program. Will the electronic version of our brain be able to learn and reason outside of what it already knows? Even Star Trek wasn't brash enough with Mr. Data. He needed a special chip for emotions. Science Fiction, yes, but how many times has science fiction become science fact?

[BeastieRunner]

Yesterday it was becoming a cyborg.

Today it's downloading our brain.

[ancient astronaut]

Arnim Zola style.

[keithisco]

What exactly would be advantageous in uploading to a database? Once cut off from all of the nuances of sensory perception that have become tailored to "You" as a biological entity at the point of upload I suspect that madness would soon ensue... IMO

[lightly]

wow, ya, sounds like the most isolating Prison ever devised .

[DemonicCupcake]

If I were able to upload my consciousness while still being alive, to preserve my personality and mind for future scientific study/testing, I'd be all for it. You ask the question "Would it really be living?" but fail to ask "What really is dying?" We usually perceive death to be when our physical bodies fail, but our physical bodies just house what and who we are, a channel through which we live as who we are. Although morally, many people may see artificial living as wrong, in my opinion, continuing to live even after you are "gone" would give a great sense of comfort, knowing you won't really die when you "die". Most often people fear death because they fear being forgotten, they fear being lost to time. Having a sense of digital immortality with the possibility of being implanted into another physical body someday may prove to be a source of hope to people, and redefine what living really is.

[Dark_Grey]

We already have VR goggles to fool your eyes and we have tiny processors we can connect to the visual cortex to give blind people sight, so how much of a leap is it to connect VR goggles directly to your brain? Remember that the world around you is only as real as your brain tells you it is. Let's quote that great scene from The Matrix where Morpheus asks "what is real? How you define 'real'? If real is something you can taste or touch than 'real' is nothing more than electrical signals interpreted by your brain." Once we can simulate other senses like touch and taste, your consciousness may as well be a program in a computer "experiencing" reality. How will you know the difference between physical reality and simulated when all your senses are being fooled?

Edit to add--

The internet is a rudimentary building block towards this idea. Everyone who is "plugged in" is uploading ideas, videos, pictures, etc. to the giant hivemind that is the internet. The delay that exists between your brain and getting thoughts on to your screen is going to become instantaneous at some point and we'll all exist in a giant pool of digital thoughts. Look at how easily human beings took to the idea of the internet, the idea of being connected to everyone all the time. It's practically in our DNA.

Essentially, we'll end up creating a digital version of "enlightenment", or realizing we are all a small part of a bigger organism. Think the Borg but without losing our sense of humour

Edited May 27, 2015 by Dark_Grey

[Afterkeys]

i think it will be like emulator for human

[XenoFish]

What would you do with immortality? I'd think that after some time it would get extremely boring. Makes me wonder exactly what kind of "life" you'd actually have.

Edited May 27, 2015 by XenoFish

[lightly]

What would you do with immortality? I'd think that after some time it would get extremely boring. Makes me wonder exactly what kind of "life" you'd actually have.

if you existed in a computer.. you could delete portions , to feel young again

[Codenwarra]

So all we need are computers that don't become obsolete and are switched off and trashed every few years.

[FlyingAngel]

It's easier to kill millions of people with just one virus or magnetic weapons

And it's easier to clone or have "baby" by just copying yourself 01011010.. into another machine

Without life and death and reproduction, life is meaningless

[Xenojjin]

A copy of you isn't you, just a copy.

[spud the mackem]

It can never be done as no computer on earth is equivalent to the capabilities of the Human brain, nor ever will be.

[nothinglizx2]

The Thanatos System, from the anime "Grisaia no Rakuen" and the automated pilot for the cargo ship in the movie "Debug."

"Ghost in the Shell."

These ideas seem more likely to serve the Eugenics program which was built more for politicians, illuminati bloodline head haunchos, and your fortune 500 guru's who see themselves as the Echelon of Society. A program like this would be more likely for them rather than for us.

[Tiggs]

What exactly would be advantageous in uploading to a database?

Aside from the obvious immortality - speed.

Imagine Stephen Hawking's brain running 100 times faster than it is now.

Imagine 10 copies of it running at once, all communicating.

What would they be able to achieve?

The biggest issue isn't the tech. We could build a computer capable of simulating a human brain today.

The real issue is encoding.

In particular - is it possible to read the state of a neuron without changing its state and the state of surrounding neurons? Would we ever be able to take a snapshot of an entire brain?

Once cut off from all of the nuances of sensory perception that have become tailored to "You" as a biological entity at the point of upload I suspect that madness would soon ensue... IMO

My opinion, too, for what it's worth.

[godnodog]

for me the issue is not feelings, or time concept, for me is the uploading downloading problematic, a download or a upload is a copy, meaning information exists in 2places, ergo we still die, but a digital copy remains wich is us but not us really, the way I see this happening is by becoming slowly a cyborg and slowly changing to a machine, either having a mechanical body or just a mechanical brain where the body exists in a digital world. A transformation is required, not a digital copy.

Take for example the mechanical hand, or mechanical arm, its only a question of time until it can't be distinguished from an biological equivalent from the neurological point of view, the brain sees it as the real arm. As for feelings, they too will be able to be replicated, as they are a collection of data and chemestry

[DemonicCupcake]

It's easier to kill millions of people with just one virus or magnetic weapons

And it's easier to clone or have "baby" by just copying yourself 01011010.. into another machine

Without life and death and reproduction, life is meaningless

Well the amazing thing about being turned into digital, readable information, is that it can be copied, and shared. As they say, information is never gone. Even after you delete it, it's still there. And once you make one copy, millions can be potentially made. It can always be transferred, never truly destroyed. I wouldn't say without death life is meaningless.

Consider how a child who was paralyzed from an accident would feel knowing they could potentially be put into another body, artificial (Mechanic) OR bio-engineered. Hell, even donated if that were an option (Which probably will be, someday.) To you it's "It's not natural, you wouldn't be living" But for a child, it is their chance to live, it is their chance to enjoy life. In the end, experiments like this should be intended to help the sick and injured. But most likely, it'll become a luxury for the rich for many years, as most things do. That really is the saddest part of it all.

We as a species are in a place we've never been before (At least in recorded history) And we often find ourselves lost in the moral pool of it all. But you must consider, with all inventions and progressions in science and medicine, comes fear and skepticism. All great inventors faced droves of people who thought what is common and comforting to us now, was morally wrong, playing god, too advanced technology. It's the same mindset that led to the Salem witch trials, fear what you don't know and slap an "evil" label on it.

Just gotta accept, that someday, these ARE going to be the reality. We've got nowhere to go but up, per say. We are going to keep progressing and evolving, and there is nothing wrong with it.

[DemonicCupcake]

I think there are two sides to this coin, two types of data transfer we are talking about here and it's causing some confusion among arguments. I think there will be a couple of different technologies, one as aforementioned in my last comment, an instant transfer of brain data into a new physical body, no copy, just a complete conscious out one and into the other. The other option, a copy of yourself stored for the future, or for a clone, or for whatever you may need or want. Obviously sitting on a disk wouldn't be living. The data would have to be run, like a program, but to run it you would need output and input of all senses. Once you can hear, feel, smell, see and taste, you are able to function as you. TECHNICALLY, only hearing, and seeing would be mandatory as a program, but certainly would not leave you feeling quite as a person.