Can the human mind or personlity be uploaded to a computer?
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2016 2:35 am
In “The Immortalists" Dimitry Itskov explains that it is his intention to upload his personality to another body. To achieve this aim he is making a considerable investment funding scientific research via his project ‘Initiative 2045’.
He believes that the brain is a computational machine that stores information, hence it should be possible to upload that information, his personality, to a machine that can simulate his original mind. However, some neuroscientists think he is crazy. They believe it is impossible to replicate in a machine the dynamic complexity of the brain from which the human condition emerges.
Is it naïve to think of a mind or personality as “composed” purely of information? It is possible to experience a state of consciousness that transcends thought. Fear is experienced first; thoughts about the experience of fear follow, or there may be a sudden switch to defensive anger or aggression, or even amusement at the realisation there was no one there, it was just the wind that blew the door shut.
He believes that the brain is a computational machine that stores information, hence it should be possible to upload that information, his personality, to a machine that can simulate his original mind. However, some neuroscientists think he is crazy. They believe it is impossible to replicate in a machine the dynamic complexity of the brain from which the human condition emerges.
Is it naïve to think of a mind or personality as “composed” purely of information? It is possible to experience a state of consciousness that transcends thought. Fear is experienced first; thoughts about the experience of fear follow, or there may be a sudden switch to defensive anger or aggression, or even amusement at the realisation there was no one there, it was just the wind that blew the door shut.