What if the end wasn't really the end? What if science and technology
could promise us life after death via the digital transference of your mind?
That is the premise of Whole Brain Emulation (WBE) or "mind uploading."
Specifically, WBE is the hypothetical copying of a person's
consciousness, including personality and memories, into an artificial
digital device (including an android body) or wireless network. Coupled with Transhumanism, a movement which aims to transform the human body through technological augmentation, WBE is an increasingly relevant (and controversial) field of scientific study. Proponents argue that within our
lifetime we will have the capability of electronically transferring our
minds beyond a physical body. If this indeed becomes a reality (and
there are many who say it is not), how would it affect how we define our
own humanity? Is a human still a human when he or she is no longer
contained in a flesh and blood vessel? Does WBE redefine human concepts of a soul? Would death have the same
meaning for us if we knew we had an electronic out? Finally, if WBE were
available today, would you opt to transfer your consciousness into a
machine at the time of your "death"?
Include at least two of the following in your discussion:
- "How to Live Forever: Here are the Ways Silicon Valley Plans to Conquer Death" (National Post)
- "God in the Machine: My Strange Journey into Transhumanism" (Guardian)
- "Mind Uploading' and Digital Immortality May be Reality by 2045, Futurists Say" (Huffington Post)
- "Immortal, but Damned to Hell on Earth" (Atlantic)
- "'Your Animal Life is Over. Machine Life Has Begun': The Road to Imortality" (Guardian)
- "Brain Emulations Pose Three Massive Moral Questions and a Scarily Practical One" (Inverse)
Required:
- MLA Style
- Works cited
- ONE full pages in length
Due: Fri 12.1
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