Preamble:
"Humans can live forever by trying to transfer consciousness to electronic devices...... has always cherished this vision of integrating technology into our lives. Nowadays, this vision is becoming possible, and the science and technology of transposing people's consciousness through electronic devices are gradually approaching reality. But will consciousness really achieve immortality after it is uploaded? These questions have undoubtedly made people talk about the "gold medal of avoiding death" stored in electronic devices.
1. You too can live forever!
A few decades ago, consciousness uploading was only a dream that could only be realized in science fiction movies. However, with the development of science and technology, especially the rise of artificial intelligence, people are gradually discussing technologies related to "uploading consciousness".
Digital life in The Wandering Earth 2
The topic of "consciousness uploading" has become extremely popular, and people have begun to discuss whether this technology can make people immortal.
Although everyone is talking about this technology, what exactly is "consciousness uploading"?
To put it simply, the so-called consciousness upload is to input the thoughts, consciousness and other information in the human brain into electronic devices through technical means.
According to the predictions of scientists, this technology, once realized, will bring great changes to human beings, allowing humans to have the exact same mode of immortality as machines.
We all know that the brain is a very amazing organ, it not only controls itself, but also is the general manager of all organs and tissues in the human body.
On top of that, it also has a huge amount of storage space that can hold a huge amount of information.
It can be said that all our knowledge and experience are preserved by the brain, and without the brain consciousness, we will become a "blank slate".
In other words, as long as the brain remains, humans can live forever.
The "consciousness uploading" technology is a study of this characteristic.
Once this technology is realized, all human memory, thoughts, knowledge and other information can be entered into electronic devices through special technical means, so that it can be permanent.
Because of this, the technology of uploading consciousness, once realized, will bring about a true mode of immortality for human beings.
So, how difficult is the consciousness upload technology?
In fact, you might as well think of consciousness uploading technology as a giant jigsaw puzzle.
In this puzzle, there are countless puzzle pieces, and each puzzle piece represents a human memory, an idea, or a skill.
To achieve consciousness uploading, all the memories, thoughts, and skills have to be broken down from the brain and then pieced back together bit by bit.
And to do this, it is undoubtedly a very difficult task for scientists.
The current state of the art is not fully able to meet this requirement, so it will take time to make a breakthrough in consciousness upload technology.
But despite this, the pace of development in the field of technology is still evolving rapidly.
At present, scientists have not only discovered the neural network structure in the human brain, but also successfully deciphered the huge amount of information in the human brain, which undoubtedly provides a solid foundation for the realization of consciousness upload technology.
It can be said that with the continuous development of technology, consciousness uploading technology will eventually usher in a breakthrough and open up a new future for mankind.
2. After consciousness is uploaded, is "you" still you?
While consciousness uploading technology promises to bring about a true model of immortality for humanity, it will also bring with it a series of problems.
In fact, fundamentally, is consciousness uploading science and technology, or is it a continuation of a life form?
Although consciousness uploading technology can store all human memories, thoughts, and skills in electronic devices, what exists in electronic devices is only a complete copy of this information, not the true form of human consciousness.
Consciousness is essentially a mode of existence of life, which is fixed in the human brain at the moment of human birth.
As long as you remember, when we were children, we were all asked the question, "Do you remember what happened before you were born?"
Everyone may be a little confused by this question, but in fact, this question is why scientists have struggled to develop successful consciousness upload technology.
This is because there is no way for everyone to remember what happened before birth, let alone store their consciousness.
This means that no matter how hard you try, you can't extract traces from your brain.
Therefore, we can clearly see that the technology of uploading consciousness is only a science and technology, and it cannot change the essence of life.
Although consciousness uploading technology can bring new life models to human beings, human beings still need to produce offspring through normal reproductive methods in order to truly continue life.
Because of this, although consciousness uploading technology can enable human beings to realize new life forms, it is not essentially a continuation of life.
In other words, even if consciousness is uploaded, it only stores information such as human thoughts and memories on electronic devices, not the human brain itself.
In other words, even if human consciousness is stored on electronic devices, the human brain is still an independent living entity, and the true continuation of life can only be achieved through its own reproduction.
Third, there are greater limitations to consciousness uploading technology
Although consciousness upload technology is expected to bring new life forms to human beings, fundamentally speaking, science and technology are more about "backing up" technology for information such as "knowledge" and "thought", rather than for "eternal life".
Especially in the face of the noisy discussion of the two concepts of "information" and "brain activity" by scientists, one can't help but ask, what is the relationship between information on electronic devices and human brain activity?
Let's start with the information on electronic devices.
In people's general perception, information can be backed up and restored, after all, we often see people backing up important information in daily life.
For the information on electronic devices, you can back up important information from your computer and mobile phone to the cloud through electronic devices, and if you lose it, you can also download this information from the cloud to your electronic devices.
As for human brain activity, it is actually no different from information on electronic devices.
As we all know, brain activity is done through neurons, and these neurons complete the brainwave conduction of neuronal connections according to various sensations and thoughts in the human body, and these brainwave conduction contains all the human memory, feelings, thoughts and other information.
These brain waves will form a unique scene in the brain, and these scenes are the information that we use in our lives.
As you can see, there is no difference between information on electronic devices and human brain activity.
As a carrier, from the perspective of its essence, the electronic device is just a storage job, and there is no difference between it and digitized information on a hard iron.
In other words, no matter how much information is stored on electronic devices, it will not become a new living entity, but only a tool to provide humans with backup information.
In other words, although consciousness uploading technology can store all human thoughts, memories, skills and other information into electronic devices, electronic devices themselves cannot become a new life carrier.
In other words, no matter how hard you try, you can't copy information such as thoughts, skills, and memories from the human brain into another new living individual.
In addition, even if scientists can find a way to copy information from electronic devices into other living beings, there is no guarantee that the copied living beings will have their own thoughts and consciousness.
From the perspective of science and technology, although the information in the human brain and electronic devices can be copied and stored, there is no guarantee that the copied new life individuals will have independent thinking and consciousness.
The author thinks
Even if consciousness uploading technology has reached a level where it can be transferred completely and uninterruptedly in technology and theory, so far, the consciousness uploading that most people expect is only in the application of brain-computer interfaces.
It is just to open more information channels for the hardware of the "brain", it is not to "upload consciousness" but simply "copy consciousness", to imitate the same consciousness as the person on the chip or just store the memory of the person.
Although the technology of uploading consciousness is undoubtedly a new opportunity for the development of human science and biology, this technology is in a sense the continuation of human beings, but it is not the continuation of consciousness itself.
Because neurons in the brain have a lot of specificity, and the connections between them are also extremely complex.
Although scientists can now stimulate some neurons in the brain by certain means, they still cannot completely copy the "information" of the brain to another brain.
Therefore, even if scientists can copy the information in the brain to electronic devices, there is no guarantee that the copied brain information is exactly the same as the original brain information.
In the face of the insurmountable limitations of the "information" and "brain" of consciousness, the author also believes that the technology of uploading consciousness can only carry a "replica", not "eternal life".
After all, on the basis of only minor modifications to the structure of the brain, only another "carrier" is established for consciousness, and consciousness itself is not changed.
The so-called "immortality" is actually just a way to regenerate the consciousness that relies on the hardware of the "brain", even if the brain is "expired", it can still get a "new" replica on another replicated brain.
Since the replica cannot change the essence of "eternal life", it is better to let go of the so-called "eternal life" and cherish the time of "limited life" in front of you and the bloom of every "warm heartbeat".
"When flowers bloom, life is infinite, but life is blooming when it comes out. "Not only let us learn to cherish the present, but also let us maintain endless expectations for the development of science and technology.