Called “mind transfer,” the idea that our minds can exist outside of our physical bodies has fascinated scientists and ordinary people alike for a long time.
The truth is that this conception is becoming closer and closer to us, thanks to recent advances in science and technology.
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This theme has been explored in film and TV, as in the iconic episode “I’ll Be Right Back” from the British science fiction series Black Mirror.
In the plot, a man uploads his mind to the internet and his memories are used to create a hyperrealistic clone after his death.
But after all, how would that be possible?
In 2016, a Russian millionaire predicted the creation of a technology capable of transferring our minds to a computer by the year 2045.
This statement was made in a program called “The Immortalist”, shown by BBC Horizon. According to this man, he was working with scientists to discover the secret of “eternal life” for the human mind.
In this sense, one of the most promising approaches to achieve this goal is complete brain emulation. This means that a detailed scan of the human brain would be able to reproduce the biological structure and, potentially, the mind of a person on a computer.
Among the most viable techniques, “scanning and copying” stands out, which consists of examining in detail the structure of a preserved brain, using methods such as electron microscopy.
The objective of this analysis is to obtain all the data about the evaluated mind, allowing its replication outside the human body.
Debates around this subject
The separation of mind and body is a sensitive issue for much of academia. For many, the two parts are interconnected and only work together.
In addition, a philosophical debate about the ethics of this procedure is raised, as it occurred in other types of research, such as the human cloning.
Anyway, despite being a possible reality, the digitization and copying of the human mind still comes up against in legislation, exposing the need to create specific rules to guide this type of research in a way safe.
This, in turn, raises discussions about what have been called “neurorights” and other new concepts that are emerging in universities and in the public debate as a whole.
