3001: Humans as Virtual Spaceships

Sir Arthur Clarke, author of 2001 -A Space Odyssey,  often explored the idea of backing up or transferring the human brain on to a computer. In his sequel, 3001: The Final Odyssey, he wrote of future beings: "As soon as their machines were better than their bodies, it was time to move. First their brains, and then their thoughts alone, they transferred into shining new homes of metal and of gemstone. In these they roamed the galaxy. They no longer built spaceships - they were spaceships."

In 2005, Sir Arthur told the BBC that "When their bodies begin to deteriorate you transfer their thoughts so their personalities would be immortal," he told the BBC in 2005. "Just save it on a CD-Rom and plug it in - simple!"

The real-life sequel to Clarke's predictions is being developed by the renowned Microsoft researcher, Gordon Bell, who is is working on a project called MyLifeBits which aims to digitally store "a lifetime's worth of articles, books, cards, CDs, letters, memos, papers, photos, pictures, presentations, home movies, videotaped lectures, and voice recordings."

The idea stemmed from the fact that, although vast, our memory can be like a will-o-wisp; examples are seen every day when we cannot remember what were even thinking of a few moments ago, or where we put the keys, or the name of a childhoodfriend.

The latest version of the project also allows him to capture phone calls, instant messenger transcripts, television, and radio to build up a virtual surrogate memory of his life.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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Source:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304852.stm

Comments

[Scott Smith]

Transfer of consciousness in to a machine/computer maybe be a LONG reach from Gordon Bell's current project, if I am correct in thinking this is the sort of thing that is being looked at in this piece? It is not clear that there is a good comparison to be made between Clark's notions on this and what Bell is working on?

[knoxvilledaniel]

Am I correct in assuming that this would be just the memories of a person, & not an attempt at recording the personality ? I have read science fiction stories & seen some sf series - like " Ghost In The Shell " - in which a human personality, complete with audio - visual avatar, resides on a future version of the Internet & / or a vast data - bank. Even if we were to attempt such a thing, I think that it would be mostly a computerized approximation of an individual personality, rather than the individual's mind.