MIND UPLOADING: When You Become The Ghost In The Machine

Scientists are racing to unlock the terrifying secret of trapping human consciousness inside computers forever — but the digital prison they’re building might be worse than death itself.

Scientists call it mind uploading. The idea sounds like something from a horror movie or science fiction nightmare. Take a human brain, scan every single part of it, and then copy all of that information into a computer. The person would wake up inside a digital world, still thinking and remembering everything from their real life. But their body would be gone forever.

Dr. Dobromir Rahnev, a brain scientist who studies how people see and understand the world around them, believes this terrifying possibility could become real someday. He thinks the technology might exist in the future, even though scientists today are nowhere close to making it happen.

The Digital Prison

Inside a computer, an uploaded mind would live in a world made of code and electricity. The person would still feel like themselves. They would remember their childhood, their family, and every important moment from their life. But everything around them would be fake – a simulation created by powerful computers.

The digital person could do normal things like eating food or driving a car, but none of it would be real. They might also be able to do impossible things, like walking through walls or flying through space. The computer could create any world the scientists wanted to build.

This digital existence comes with a dark problem. The uploaded mind would need to feel sensations just like a real human body provides. Without the ability to see, hear, smell, touch, and feel, the person would go insane.

Scientists know what happens when humans cannot use their senses. People put in rooms with no light or sound often suffer mental breakdowns. People who cannot feel hunger, thirst, or pain develop serious mental health problems. The digital world would need to perfectly copy every sensation a real body provides, or the uploaded mind would become a prisoner in its own electronic hell.

Mapping the Mind’s Maze

Creating a digital copy of a human brain requires scanning and mapping every tiny piece of it. The human brain contains about 86 billion neurons – the cells that carry thoughts and memories. Each neuron is smaller than a pinhead, and they connect to each other in trillions of different ways.

Scientists would need machines far more powerful than today’s best medical scanners. They would have to capture the exact location and connections of every single brain cell. But even that massive task would not be enough.

Each neuron changes constantly as a person thinks, learns, and experiences life. The scientists would also need to understand and copy how each brain cell works at the most basic level. They might need to go down to the level of individual molecules inside each cell.

Right now, scientists have only managed to completely map the brain of a fly and small pieces of a mouse brain. The human brain is millions of times more complex than a fly’s brain.

The Replacement Method

Some scientists think there might be an easier way to upload a mind. Instead of scanning the whole brain at once, they could replace real neurons with artificial ones, one at a time. As each brain cell gets swapped out for a computer chip, the person would slowly become more machine than human.

This method sounds less frightening than copying the entire brain, but it brings its own horrors. At what point would the person stop being human? When half their brain becomes artificial? When only a few real brain cells remain? The person might not even realize they were becoming a machine until it was too late.

The biggest problem with this approach is that scientists cannot even replace a single real neuron with an artificial one that works the same way. Creating fake brain cells that can perfectly copy what real ones do remains far beyond current technology.

The Unknown Timeline

Predicting when mind uploading might become possible is nearly impossible. Some optimistic scientists think it could happen by 2045, just twenty years from now. Others believe it will take until the end of this century.

Dr. Rahnev thinks both predictions are too hopeful. He believes mind uploading probably will not work for at least 100 years, and more likely will take 200 years or longer to develop.

The technology needed for mind uploading does not exist yet. Scientists need much more powerful computers, better brain scanning machines, and a complete understanding of how human consciousness works. They are currently missing all three requirements.

The Billionaire’s Dream

Despite the enormous challenges, mind uploading research will never lack money. Wealthy people around the world are willing to spend millions or billions of dollars for a chance to live forever. The promise of escaping death drives some of the richest people on Earth to fund this research.

Technology companies and research laboratories continue working on the pieces needed for mind uploading. Computer processors become more powerful every year. Brain scanning equipment gets better and more detailed. Scientists learn more about how neurons work and connect to each other.

But even with unlimited money and the world’s smartest scientists working on the problem, mind uploading remains a distant and disturbing possibility. The human brain holds secrets that may take centuries to unlock, leaving the dream of digital immortality trapped in the realm of nightmares and science fiction.

SOURCE: The Conversation