downloading your brain to a computer

[KillerBronco#76]

By the middle of the 21st century it will be possible to download your brain to a supercomputer, according to a leading thinker on the future.

Ian Pearson, head of British Telecom's futurology unit, told the UK's Observer newspaper that the rapid advances in computing power would make cyber-immortality a reality within 50 years.

Pearson said the launch last week of Sony's PlayStation 3, a machine 35 times more powerful than the model it replaced, was a sign of things to come.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."

Pearson said that brain-downloading technology would initially be the preserve of the rich, but would become more available over subsequent decades.

"If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine," he said.

"We are very serious about it. That's how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT."

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

IBM's BlueGene computer can already perform 70.72 trillion calculations a second and Pearson said the next computing goal was to replicate consciousness.

"We're already looking at how you might structure a computer that could become conscious. Consciousness is just another sense, effectively, and that's what we're trying to design in computer."

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

By 2020 Pearson also predicted the creation of a "virtual world" of immersive computer-generated environments in which we will spend increasing amounts of time, socializing and doing business.

He said: "When technology gives you a life-size 3D image and the links to your nervous system allow you to shake hands, it's like being in the other person's office. It's impossible to believe that won't be the normal way of communicating."

But Pearson admitted that the consequences of advancing technologies needed to be considered carefully.

"You need a complete global debate," he said. "Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one."

Source: CNN.com

[KillerBronco#76]

wow thats some crazy stuff just imagine if you can download how you think onto a computer the computer who be essentialy you. so thatd be trippy as hell mabey imortality is possible.

[o_robbie]

wow thats some crazy stuff just imagine if you can download how you think onto a computer the computer who be essentialy you. so thatd be trippy as hell mabey imortality is possible.

I had a class called current and emerging issues in technology where we talked about this among other things. If you get a chance look up Ray Kurzwell who has been predicting this and other crazy ideas for some time now.

The book The Age of Spiritual Machines is quite interesting.

[Rock Chalk]

I bet that makes sex a little more difficult.

[Old Dude]

Hans Moravec has been on this kick since the late 80s.

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/

http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/book88/reviews/890109.NewYorker.html

[Old Dude]

I bet that makes sex a little more difficult.

In 50 years, I won't be having much sex anyway.

[dbfan4life]

How does that work? Here's a look at the future...you download your brain to a computer, then freeze your dead body. Then when they figure out how to make your body live again, then they can download your memory back into your brain again. What will they come up with next? Human cloning...oh wait, has that already been done?

[Old Dude]

Personally, I think I'd rather stay in the computer.

You could just have someone flip a switch to get you drunk instead of having to pay for the booze.

Not to mention, you could manage with a lot smaller apartment.

Lots of benefits to being a brain-in-a-jar.

If I wanted a body, I'd want one that could kick a$$. Like a cyborg T-Rex or Terminator T-1000.

Flesh is overrated.

[elsid13]

In 50 years, I won't be having much sex anyway.


Like you're getting it now.....

[Rock Chalk]

In 50 years, I won't be having much sex anyway.
I will be. Viagara and Cialis should be even better then :)

[PatsWin2002]

Hasn't Mock already done this?? Ha!

I knew he was ahead of his time. !Booya!

[ND Bronco Fan]

Think of the legal system and what this would do to that. Download Michael Jacksons brain, lord help us all..............but to download that 5k and you would find out the truth. Memories have to be stored in their, guessing with him it is in the trash though.

[Rock Chalk]

Think of the legal system and what this would do to that. Download Michael Jacksons brain, lord help us all..............but to download that 5k and you would find out the truth. Memories have to be stored in their, guessing with him it is in the trash though.
Funny thing about memories, they are fickle and rarely accurate.

[ND Bronco Fan]

How does that work? Here's a look at the future...you download your brain to a computer, then freeze your dead body. Then when they figure out how to make your body live again, then they can download your memory back into your brain again. What will they come up with next? Human cloning...oh wait, has that already been done?

Exactly, this could basically be immortality..........clone yourself when you get older and make yourself a new you, let the clone age up to be about age 20 something, then upload your brain into the clone. Think of the wealth of knowledge you would have as a 20 year old. Plus all those things that you wished you would have done when you were 20 you can now do. How cool would that be.

[orangeatheist]

This would be freakin, a.w.e.s.o.m.e!

Sign me up! Now I just have to figure out if I want to be a water-cooled system or not....

[Rock Chalk]

Exactly, this could basically be immortality..........clone yourself when you get older and make yourself a new you, let the clone age up to be about age 20 something, then upload your brain into the clone. Think of the wealth of knowledge you would have as a 20 year old. Plus all those things that you wished you would have done when you were 20 you can now do. How cool would that be.

I think one time around is enough for me in a body with responsibilities.

Now if I could be 20 forever, and not have to do ****, and just watch the world unfold around me, that I could do.

[Rock Chalk]

This would be freakin, a.w.e.s.o.m.e!

Sign me up! Now I just have to figure out if I want to be a water-cooled system or not....

An atheist who wants to be immortal. Gee, what a surprise.

[Old Dude]

Seriously, this gets complicated. If you buy the "information theory of identity" then a downloaded version of you would be you. All of your memories, your personality, etc.

But if you do it before you are dead, then you are two you's. So which one are you? Both?

Then consider this.

If you did download, what's the first thing you'd do?

That's right.

You'd want a backup copy.

And you could do a backup of the backup and load multiple backups into a big virtual reality system where you could meet billions of yourselves.

[ND Bronco Fan]

Funny thing about memories, they are fickle and rarely accurate.

If in fact that was the long term case then yes, it would not work.....but somewhere in the subconscience there has to be memories stored is my opinion.

[Old Dude]

More on the information theory of identity. (You can tell I've thought about this way too much).

So what if you can put together a computer program that simulates someone?

Abe Lincoln, for example.

And over time, your historical reasearch, aided by super-computers and the "Q" guy from Star Trek or whatever, gets better and better, until you can construct an exact replica of Abe's mind and memories. (Let's say thousands of years from now)

Have you resurrected Abe Linclon, or is it just memorex?

[dbfan4life]

Can you imagine this technology in the wrong hands? That's a scary thought.

[KillerBronco#76]

this could be horrible though our computers could start talking back to us when we yell at them. And they might become stuborn and not work at all if we make them too smart.

[Old Dude]

Can you imagine this technology in the wrong hands? That's a scary thought.

Yeah. You could download someone into a computer where they suffered eternal torture and misery.

That would really suck.

[Taco John]

By the middle of the 21st century it will be possible to download your brain to a supercomputer, according to a leading thinker on the future.

Ian Pearson, head of British Telecom's futurology unit, told the UK's Observer newspaper that the rapid advances in computing power would make cyber-immortality a reality within 50 years.

Pearson said the launch last week of Sony's PlayStation 3, a machine 35 times more powerful than the model it replaced, was a sign of things to come.

"The new PlayStation is one percent as powerful as the human brain," Pearson told the Observer. "It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain."

Pearson said that brain-downloading technology would initially be the preserve of the rich, but would become more available over subsequent decades.

"If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine," he said.

"We are very serious about it. That's how fast this technology is moving: 45 years is a hell of a long time in IT."

Pearson also predicted that it would be possible to build a fully conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence as early as 2020.

IBM's BlueGene computer can already perform 70.72 trillion calculations a second and Pearson said the next computing goal was to replicate consciousness.

"We're already looking at how you might structure a computer that could become conscious. Consciousness is just another sense, effectively, and that's what we're trying to design in computer."

Pearson said that computer consciousness would make feasible a whole new sphere of emotional machines, such as airplanes that are afraid of crashing.

By 2020 Pearson also predicted the creation of a "virtual world" of immersive computer-generated environments in which we will spend increasing amounts of time, socializing and doing business.

He said: "When technology gives you a life-size 3D image and the links to your nervous system allow you to shake hands, it's like being in the other person's office. It's impossible to believe that won't be the normal way of communicating."

But Pearson admitted that the consequences of advancing technologies needed to be considered carefully.

"You need a complete global debate," he said. "Whether we should be building machines as smart as people is a really big one."

Source: CNN.com



Pshaw! Ian is about ten years behind me... I was telling my friends this ten years ago.

[Old Dude]

Buy this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0201567512/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-5973775-6993531#reader-page

I command all of you.

It contains all the secrets of the universe and the future of humanity.

You can probably get a used copy for under $5.

[Rock Chalk]

50 years into the future. I dont speculate on such things to the extent of calling what will be here and what wont. There are far too many variables involved in technological progress and outside circumstance that make such speculation trivial at best.

This guy says 45 years, but really, that technology may be available to us next year. One small breakthrough is all thats needed, somewhere, in some niche (likely quantum or genetic computing, nanotech,et.al.) that could be made tomorrow and mass produced within a year. We are very close to a new computing standard that will completely revolutionize everything we know about what a "fast" computer is.

Take for example a "binary" deck, such as the silicon chips we use. Where binary digits are used to express boolean options (yes/no, true/false, on/off) with 0 and 1. Quantum computing will be using "trinary" decks, wit the same boolean options but also both simultaneously effectively giving the computer a "maybe" option. What does this mean? Simply put. Take a number with 1 million digits (1 and 999,999 zero's after it) and tell all the computers in the world right now to find ALL the factors for that number and those computers will be hard at work for well over 3 centuries computing it.

Give that exact same number and job to a quantum computer and you will have all of the factors in a few seconds.

OK, so big deal, new computers can do new math, so what? Well, what that means is that EVERYTHING will speed up. Breakthroughs in physics, climatology, universal mapping, the human genome, cloning, cyborg tech, nano tech, interstellar travel, fluid and thermal dynamics and pretty much every other super hard subject will be figured out within a matter of days. Our current supercomputers are still not powerful enough to factor in all the variants of the Earth's weather. Our current most powerful computers cant even tell you how water is going to move down a river through a 3D model. We can create an artistic rendition of what we THINK will happen, but how that water would really behave we cannot use our computer power for. Too many variables, too much math. With this kind of computing power, computer modelling will take us farther in the next century than we went in the last century.

And all of this is possible at any moment. Some Einstein is out there somewhere formulating ideas and is going to Eureka something that changes civilization yet again.

People, this is the most exciting time to be alive There will come a point when progress is slowed. Right now, we are in high gear and its going to get faster before it slows.

[ClevelandBronco2]

So once law enforcement (and other governmental agencies) get a hold of this it'll be the ultimate lie detector. They'll just be able to download a suspect's memory and know for sure whether he's guilty.

I don't like the implications of this at all.

[Rock Chalk]

So once law enforcement (and other governmental agencies) get a hold of this it'll be the ultimate lie detector. They'll just be able to download a suspect's memory and know for sure whether he's guilty.

I don't like the implications of this at all.
Criminals usually dont.

[labronx]

Personally, I think I'd rather stay in the computer.

You could just have someone flip a switch to get you drunk instead of having to pay for the booze.

Not to mention, you could manage with a lot smaller apartment.

Lots of benefits to being a brain-in-a-jar.

If I wanted a body, I'd want one that could kick a$$. Like a cyborg T-Rex or Terminator T-1000.

Flesh is overrated.

FLESH is everything
FLESH is the reason you LIVE
FLESH is Physical Conciousness
the boiling point, ecstasy, of the mind state
FLESH IS LIFE
but don't touch it cuzz youll loose your mind and maybe even your life
SO DONT GET TOO FRESH around FLESH!

LOL

The 3rd dimension without it there is no 4th

[Pat Bowlen]

So once law enforcement (and other governmental agencies) get a hold of this it'll be the ultimate lie detector. They'll just be able to download a suspect's memory and know for sure whether he's guilty.

I don't like the implications of this at all.
There's a lot of things about the technology that I could see as potentially troubling, but possibly being able to tell whether or not a person really was innocent or guilty doesn't seem like a negative at all.

[Dukes]

This is the kind of crap that will lead us to doom :pity:

[RhymesayersDU]

I bet that makes sex a little more difficult.

For some people here, it may just make it easier.

[kappys]

Personally I'm not buying it. Not saying that it is impossible of course, but to put a timetable on it is kind of ridiculous. As Alec pointed out it will basiclly come down to a breakthrough that will result in the trigger for this kind of technology. It could happen in a couple of years, or it might never happen, or it could take centuries.

Right now we really have no idea what constitutes consciousness. Its inner workings are basically a complete mystery, and in all honesty we are no closer to it than Decartes was when he took it up. That's not to say that we don't understand a hell of a lot more about brain function that we used to, but the essential of consciousness - the impetus to perform a conscious and willing act(not reflex), and a nidus for original thought are basically still a mystery. I'm not that savvy abou technology, but I do understand biology well. At this moment we have no answer to what is or even creates consciousness, so I find it hard to believe that we will necesarrily have an answer to it in 45 years time.

[GreatBronco16]

downloading your brain to a computer


You guys are just now hearing about this? Hell, I've done this about 3 times just this week. :super:

[Bronx33]

If you were to put the contents of bryan bozworths brain onto a hard drive it would take about 800Mb give or take a Mb.......

[ClevelandBronco2]

There's a lot of things about the technology that I could see as potentially troubling, but possibly being able to tell whether or not a person really was innocent or guilty doesn't seem like a negative at all.

I'll give you that one. Maybe. But if I'm searching a guy's memory for a murder and I find no murder, only a shoplifting incident, can I use it? In the case of search warrants, the answer is generally no.

Another question: We have "hate crimes" (illegal is some cases) that can be inspired by "hate speech" (big push against it these days). The concept of illegal "hate thought" can't be far behind, can it?

One more: Is a guy who thinks about committing an act of terrorism dangerous enough to lock up?

Once something like this is available, the idea that anyone can be a private citizen will be antique.

[ClevelandBronco2]

We'll have murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder and a new offense: contemplation of murder.

[ClevelandBronco2]

Welcome to the employment application process at Conglomerated ChinoAmerican, Mr. Smith. Please urinate in the cup and we'll need to download the contents of your brain.

[Mr. Trout]

Like you're getting it now.....


I can't imagine not being able to get the soldier to salute..I will take viagra till i have a heart attack if I have to.

[TheDave]

I'm sure some peoples brains will be easier to download than others...

[Odysseus]

More on the information theory of identity. (You can tell I've thought about this way too much).

So what if you can put together a computer program that simulates someone?

Abe Lincoln, for example.

And over time, your historical reasearch, aided by super-computers and the "Q" guy from Star Trek or whatever, gets better and better, until you can construct an exact replica of Abe's mind and memories. (Let's say thousands of years from now)

Have you resurrected Abe Linclon, or is it just memorex?

Memorex. You would have to recreate the entire Civil War online to give Abe context, recreate his parents, and limit his views to that of the context of the 1800's. If you read any of the time travel treatise it talks about how stepping on a butterfly could alter the future. There is no way to control a river in time or recreate a moment in time. You can create Abe as he should be but that is about as close as it gets.

We are all living fractals made of mathematical variables of light and sound. There are some very old sound and light meditations which reflect on this.

I think meeting your virtual self could be a very humbling experience. To have a created reality and to realize you are the only thing real in all of the reality that you created. Imagine speaking to others and getting design ideas to enhance the reality that you created. What would be the first question that you asked?

Eventually someone would hack into someone else's reality and then the online reality wars would ensue. Our peaceful paradise would be brought into chaos as unaccounted for mathematical variables would bring the unthinkable to paradise and our virtual souls would grapple with the problem of what to do with what in effect could be a limitless eternity of memories.

The poor left behind because they could not afford to live in virtual reality would never know about this and would make up stories about how perfect those lives must be.

[baja]

I bet that makes sex a little more difficult.

Why it's still nuts and bolts - simple really