Researchers have already mapped the neural connections of a roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. As part of the so-called OpenWorm project, they then simulated the roundworm's brain in software replicating the neural connections, and programmed that software to direct a Lego robot, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The robot then appeared to start behaving like a roundworm.
Scientists aren't close to mapping the connections between the 86 billion neurons of the human brain roundworms have only neurons , but advances in artificial intelligence may help us get there. Once the human mind is in a computer and can be uploaded to the internet, we won't have to worry about the human body perishing.
Moving the human mind out of the body would be a significant step on the road to immortality but, according to Schneider, there's a catch. Schneider, who is also the author of " Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind " Princeton University Press, , describes a thought experiment in which the brain either does or doesn't survive the upload process.
If the brain does survive, then the digital copy can't be you as you're still alive; conversely, the digital copy also can't be you if your brain doesn't survive the upload process, because it wouldn't be if you did — the copy can only be your digital double.
Related: What is consciousness? According to Schneider, a better route to extreme longevity, while also preserving the person, would be through biological enhancements compatible with the survival of the human brain. Another, more controversial route would be through brain chips. So, eventually, one becomes like an artificial intelligence," Schneider said.
In other words, slowly transitioning into a cyborg and thinking in chips rather than neurons. But if the human brain is intimately connected to you, then replacing it could mean suicide, she added. The human body appears to have an expiration date, regardless of how it is upgraded or uploaded. Whether humans are still human without their bodies is an open question. So, what really matters here is, what is it to be a conscious being?
And when is it that changes in the brain change which conscious being you are? Schneider is excited by the potential brain and body enhancements of the future and likes the idea of ridding ourselves of death by old age, despite some of her reservations.
I would love to see people have the option of upgrading their brains with chips. I just want them to understand what's at stake. In a report on Phys. What we show is that this forms a double bind - a catch If you get rid of those poorly functioning, sluggish cells, then that allows cancer cells to proliferate, and if you get rid of, or slow down, those cancer cells, then that allows sluggish cells to accumulate.
So you're stuck between allowing these sluggish cells to accumulate and allowing cancer cells to proliferate, and if you do one you can't do the other. You can't do them both at the same time," he adds. Scientists have wondered why nature has not selected any life form to be immortal, if it was a possibility.
There are examples of long-living trees like the bristle cone pine, which grows in the arid parts of the US and can live for years, and the round worm C elegans which can go into a coma for four months and come back to life.
But no living being lives forever. Scientists have investigated this possible oversight of natural selection, studying why nature or evolution has not done away with the process of aging altogether.
The current research on the topic is based on the hypothesis that science can trump aging, at least in theory. The practical way out, the scientists say, is by making cells healthier and then pushing natural selection to choose between healthy cells over non-functioning cells.
This story first appeared in The Sun and has been republished here with permission. To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout. A new bus fleet will hit Sydney streets next month, but the vehicles will be very different from what Australians are used to. At-home testing for Covid will be available from November 1, but it may not be available in some states.
Best of shopping Premium Membership. In the know quiz. Technology Innovation Inventions Want to live forever?
0コメント