Tag Archives: Mind uploading

Michael Graziano on mind uploading

Posted on October 20, 2019 by

Michael Graziano has an article at The Guardian, which feels like an excerpt from his new book, exploring what might happen if we can upload minds: Imagine that a person’s brain could be scanned in great detail and recreated in … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , | 204 Comments

The implications of embodied cognition

Posted on January 16, 2019 by

Sean Carroll on his podcast interviewed Lisa Aziz-Zadeh on embodied cognition: Brains are important things; they’re where thinking happens. Or are they? The theory of “embodied cognition” posits that it’s better to think of thinking as something that takes place … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , | 36 Comments

Altered Carbon

Posted on February 5, 2018 by

Several years ago, I read Richard K. Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels about a future where people’s minds are recorded in a device (called a “stack”) implanted just below the brain stem, essentially providing a form of mind uploading, and allowing people … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , | 43 Comments

Why embodiment does not make mind copying impossible

Posted on May 1, 2017 by

A while back, I highlighted a TEDX talk by Anil Seth where he discussed that cognition is largely a prediction machine.  Apparently Seth more recently gave another talk at the full TED conference, which is receiving rave reviews.  Unfortunately, that talk … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 30 Comments

The challenges of copying a mind

Posted on July 18, 2016 by

Michael Graziano has an article at the Atlantic looking at the plausibility of mind copying.  He doesn’t beat around the bush, going all in with the title: Why You Should Believe in the Digital Afterlife, although the actual text of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , | 26 Comments

SMBC: Robot heaven

Posted on January 17, 2016 by

Click through for full sized version and red button caption. Source: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal Of course, the upshot is that if you view humans as organic machines, it opens the door to something like robot heaven eventually working for us. … Continue reading →

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Discovering the architecture of the mind

Posted on December 2, 2015 by

I’ve written numerous times here that I tend to think that AGI (artificial general intelligence) and mind uploading are both ultimately possible.  (Possibly centuries in the future, but possible.)  I’ve also noted that we’ll have to have a working understanding … Continue reading →

Posted in Mind and AI | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

David Eagleman: Can a computer simulate a brain?

Posted on November 13, 2015 by

The other day, I highlighted the article by neuroscientist Kenneth Miller on the possibility of mind uploading.  Miller saw it as possible, but thought it might be thousands or maybe even millions of years before we could do it.  Here’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Zeitgeist | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Why alien life will probably be engineered life

Posted on October 23, 2015 by

Martin Rees has an interesting article at Nautilus: When We Find Aliens, We Might Find Something Like the Borg This September, a team of astronomers noticed that the light from a distant star is flickering in a highly irregular pattern.1 They considered … Continue reading →

Posted in Space | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

A darker vision of the post-singularity: The Quantum Thief trilogy

Posted on May 10, 2015 by

I just finished reading Hannu Rajaniemi’s Quantum Thief trilogy: ‘The Quantum Thief‘, ‘The Fractal Prince‘, and ‘The Causal Angel‘.  (The official name of the trilogy is the Jean le Flambeur series, named after one of the chief protagonists, but everyone seems … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments