AVATAR In Reality

Will we be able to transfer our minds...our very control...into a machine? This article thinks we can.

Upload Consciousness

Essentially, people will be able to upload their minds to a machine in order to control it. THis man thinks he can have it done in 30 years. Given what I have already seen with brain-machine interfaces:



...I think the technology could be managed. All they'd have to do is plug in the signals and give you a visual feed.

What do you think?

C:\Program Files.........blue screen of death........man lies quivering on floor waiting for reboot

Yep, absolutely will happen.

If you got the time read-

Alastair Reynolds Revelation space
or
Richard Morgon Altered Carbon

Originally posted by VoidHawk
C:\Program Files.........blue screen of death........man lies quivering on floor waiting for reboot

Yep, absolutely will happen.

If you got the time read-

Alastair Reynolds Revelation space
or
Richard Morgon Altered Carbon

I don't know if you saw, but I originally typed the thread title as "C://Programs/MindTransfer".

My own little joke for the nerds.

reply to post by Starchild23


Impossible.

Intelligence and personality are emergent phenomena within a memory and processing architecture.

You can't "download" your brain into a computer. The basic reason why is that our brain has no "FTP" capability.

I've hypothesized that it is possible, through cybernetic enhancements of the brain, for the cybernetic-end of our existence (the subroutines, keywords of interest, and other autonomous tools we would ultimately employ) to be a sort of emergent AI construct acting as a "digital liaison" and arbitrator of your goals (hunting down interesting research, interfacing with simulations, etc). And I believe it will become a sort of "ancestral memory" (you will encounter your father's cybernetic routines that will likely have cataloged a number of his experiences and memories, and will act in a manner similar to him) - but it is something that will develop over a person's lifetime of utilizing an interactive interface designed to learn to be similar to their person (or that simply ends up acting like that person because it was, essentially, built by the person in question).

It's not a system you can really transfer. It's a pipe dream of neuroscience that is simply missing the mark.

That said - I don't discourage further research into the mind and how it works within the brain. That is never a bad thing. I just think they are getting a bit carried away with their bad habit of comparing the brain to a computer.

reply to post by Starchild23


It wouldnt work... Your mind comes from another body, the spirit/esprit/soul. It is linked to your brain. If your brain is destroyed, your soul go out somewhere in that incomprehensible outer world. Even if you managed to transfer what you think to be your consciouness, it would be at best the memory of your life, not yourself. If we manage to make a device that would allow to transfer someone's memories from living people, you would end up with two entities, the original and a soul less copy that would, most probably lose it and go mad. All i can say is that i fear what could happen is you give these copies, a moving body like an android. It could lead to a machines domination world like in terminator .

Although there is a difference between a mind-transfer and the concept of cybernetic interfaces with machines.... which seems to be more the direction of the research in question.

Cybernetic interfaces with machines will become market-worthy in another 10-15 years; Nanny State providing.

reply to post by Aim64C


I dont' put anything past the powers of quantum computing though, that's a whole new ball game, especially with data transfer and retention.

I look forward to science proving me and you wrong about downloading your brain, but I agree with today's science and tech, it's just a pipe dream.

~Tenth

Originally posted by _damon
reply to post by Starchild23

 

It wouldnt work... Your mind comes from another body, the spirit/esprit/soul. It is linked to your brain. If your brain is destroyed, your soul go out somewhere in that incomprehensible outer world. Even if you managed to transfer what you think to be your consciouness, it would be at best the memory of your life, not yourself. If we manage to make a device that would allow to transfer someone's memories from living people, you would end up with two entities, the original and a soul less copy that would, most probably lose it and go mad. All i can say is that i fear what could happen is you give these copies, a moving body like an android. It could lead to a machines domination world like in terminator

.

The mind is not the same as the soul. Your soul influences your mind...but your soul is not your mind. Do you ever wonder why you don't remember your past lives? It's because your mind is erased during reincarnation. Your soul remains, but your mind doesn't.

A completely wiped scrap of energy.

Anyways, we're talking about the electrical signals that control our body and register images in our sight. Religion and metaphysics is not involved in any way. If it relied on that, then we would be totally screwed, because no very many can do Astral Projection...and the military (yes, the military would obviously get first pick of the technology) would want to train quite a few for using the technology in the battlefield.

This is physical science, not metaphysics.

reply to post by tothetenthpower

I dont' put anything past the powers of quantum computing though, that's a whole new ball game, especially with data transfer and retention.

It's not a matter of whether or not you can emulate the personality of a human on a computer. That is more than possible, provided we understand enough about how our mind comes into being from mere electrochemical impulses.

It's a matter of how do you get THIS mind into a machine.

The answer is that it must grow into it - just as you grow into driving a car intuitively with little/no conscious thought.

You can't just "download" to or from the brain. It's simply not possible, because the brain is not set up to function that way.

Now we just need some cool Virtual reality glasses and we got ourselves one nice surrogate!