There are a number of scientific projects in the world that are aimed at creating a complete imitation of the human brain based on computer technology. We are not talking about the notorious artificial intelligence, which will then take over the world and send terminators on us, but about a device that can serve as a complete analogue to the human brain, not just an abstract brain, but your brain.
To put it quite simply, such technology will allow you to fully scan, and then map the human brain, with all the neural connections, in order to then recreate an exact copy of these connections using processors. In other words, it will be possible to make a complete transfer of personality to an inorganic physical medium.
Already in 2007, the first phase of the Blue Brain project was completed, in which very specific results were obtained:
– a new model of grid structure, which automatically, on request, generates a neural network from the provided biological data;
– a new simulation and self-regulation process, which automatically conducts a systematic check and calibration of the model before each release, for a more accurate correspondence with the biological nature;
The first model of the column of the neocortex of the cell level, built exclusively on biological data. (In case you’ve forgotten, the neocortex is the area of our cortex responsible for higher mental activity.)
It sounds pretty impressive, and there are no doubts that the faster computers evolve and the computing power increases, the faster this project will be completed. And since you can build one column of the synthetic neocortex completely identical to the biological one, then the entire neocortex can also be recreated.
Let’s assume this happened and we have in our hands a “flash drive” that allows you to copy your personality to it. Suppose before you die, you scan your brain and copy yourself, and then come to life, but not in the human body, but in the bowels of a supercomputer (by today’s standards, maybe in the future, ordinary personal computers will have enough power to recreate all the neural connections of the human brain).
And so you woke up “inside” the computer. All your memories are with you. Even with current technology, you can be equipped with pretty decent eyes (based on modern video cameras), ears (based on modern microphones), and even touch and smell with the help of special sensors. Maybe taste buds can be recreated, or maybe they can be recreated, we just don’t know. But the question is: will it be life?
After all, a person is a certain combination of consciousness and body and we perceive yourselves not only as a sum of feelings and knowledge, but also as an individual, and our body is a part of our individuality. We guess it’s possible to put a computer personality inside a robot that completely recreates our appearance, but it’s still not the same.
Will we feel this body? Can we equip this robot with the right amount of receptors to sense everything we can feel with our body?
But that’s not the most important thing. It is no secret that our emotions are not only the result of intellectual activity, but also the product of complex biochemical reactions. Will we be able to love like crazy young lovers do? Will we be able to empathize, as a mother empathizes with a sick child? In other words, is it possible to imitate the work of dopamine, serotonin and other hormones? Or will we turn into cold intelligent machines that store the memory of a former life? its almost certain that such an emotional “truncation” will affect very negatively the preserved personality. Would you even want to exist as a person in this form?
Suppose, in theory, that they will be able to recreate an accurate program model that simulates emotions and biochemical processes that affect emotions, while personality transfer is still far away in development. Would you agree to such a transfer in old age, so that after death you are launched in an inorganic body that can move tolerably, see, hear, and primitively touch?
Would people agree to such a surrogate life, until they come up with a way to completely copy the human body on an inorganic basis? It will then be possible to live like the Dalai Lama, while constantly changing things and keeping memories of past lives.
