Could We Upload Our Consciousness to a Computer?

Would it ever be possible to one day upload our consciousness to a computer? How would we go about this? Read More: The Brain vs. The Computer ****** “Throughout history, people have compared the brain to different inventions.” Scientists Are Convinced Mind Transfer Is the Key to Immortality ****** “Call it mind transfer, uploading, brain backup, whatever—the idea of copying the human brain to a computer so it can live on without the body has a strong hold on futurists, neuroscientists, and folks that just want to live forever.” Mind-reading Technology Speeds Ahead ****** “Jack Gallant perches on the edge of a swivel chair in his lab at the University of California, Berkeley, fixated on the screen of a computer that is trying to decode someone's thoughts.” Engineering a memory with LTD and LTP ****** “It has been proposed that memories are encoded by modification of synaptic strengths through cellular mechanisms such as long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD).” MIT scientists implant a false memory into a mouse’s brain ****** “Sometime soon, a lab mouse could wake up thinking he had snuggled up to a girl mouse the night before. But he hadn’t. The memory would be fake.” If your brain were a computer, how much storage space would it have? ****** “The comparison between the human brain and a computer is not a perfect one, but it does lend itself to some interesting lines of inquiry. For instance: what is the storage capacity of your brain?” ____________________ DNews is dedicated to satisfying your curiosity and to bringing you mind-bending stories & perspectives you won't find anywhere else! New videos twice daily. Watch More DNews on TestTube ****** Subscribe now! ****** DNews on Twitter ****** Trace Dominguez on Twitter ****** Julia Wilde on Twitter ****** DNews on Facebook ****** DNews on Google ****** Discovery News ****** Download the TestTube App: ******

Hello. I am interested in the process by which I could download everything from a brain and upload it into a brain inside the body of Ryan Reynolds so I could have lots of cool fun. Is that possible? Asking for a friend. Hey brainiacs, Trace here for DNews! Over the centuries, we've compared our brain to clocks, telephone switchboards, and now (of course) computers; but really the brain is none of these things. It's its own thing. In the upcoming movie Self/Less, a dying man uses crazy cool technology to transfer his consciousness into a younger man's body. One would assume each brain has similar programming for how to run a heart, manage an immune system and so on -- so we just need the memory data from the person we're downloading, but if I wanted to download all the data from one brain, and upload it into another brain… would that even be possible? Stephen Hawking thinks so, and futuruist Ray Kurzweil believes we're only 40 years to away… So, what's blocking us from starting our first brain backups? Firstly, we'd have to read from the source brain, scientists will have to learn how we store those memories. Neurons don't simply store one bit of information like in a computer. Each neuron can create 1,000 connections with those around them, and unlike machines aren't only on or off -- they have other states too. Luckily, humans are pretty obsessed with mind-reading. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley scanned the brains of people while they watched videos -- and using only the brain scans, a computer was able to determine what the brains were processing. Using an fMRI scan to follow blood through the brain, using three dimensional representations of the scanned areas called voxels, the researchers trained the computer to piece together what the brain was looking at. Using tech like this, scientists have scanned brains of players of Counterstrike, and see when they want to turn left or right, but if their character is killed, emotional response overwhelms the scan. Emotions are far too complex to read… yet. Next, we'll have to write to the new brain. When WE do that, we're biochemically modifying neurons and their connections to other neurons. There are trillions of these synaptic connections in each person's head. A study in Nature explored exactly how this process works using mice with cells that had been genetically modified to activate when hit with laser light -- this is called called optogenetics. With this method, researchers were able to demonstrate how memories are written, erased and reactivated, and then able to "implant" a false memory into another genetically modified mouse! It's REALLY incredible, but we can't yet do this with any mouse off the street… yet. So let's assume we get to a point where we can read and write to brains; we need to copy that information. But, the human brain isn't a finite storage system like a hard drive; there could be a lot of space in there. Estimates vary from 2.5 petabytes -- about a million gigabytes -- down to a few measly gigabytes. If you wanted to copy 2.5 petabytes over say, a USB 3.0 connection, it would have to run continuously for more than 80 DAYS; and even over Thunderbolt 3 it would take almost a week! The biggest issue in consciousness transfer, is going to be mapping the brain accurately. Computer scientists from giant companies, major universities, and world governments have been working on mapping and translating the brain network to a computer network for decades. But, thoughts don't live on a single neuron, nor are they processed in a single place, but rather as a patterned network of brain cells picking up the information and processing it. We're at the fundamental level of brain mapping already, we've got a while to go until we can map all the connections and states of all our individual neurons in real time, but just imagine where we'll be with a few more decades behind us, considering where we are already... Billions of dollars are being spent on this, and according to top minds in the field, it's only a matter of time until we learn to emulate a brain in a computer, and map a consciousness on top of it. Based on what we know now, maybe we aren't too far from a brain copying future... Self/Less hits theaters on July 10th, and will star Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds. In this sci-fi tale, an extremely wealthy man, dying from cancer, undergoes a radical medical procedure that transfers his consciousness into the body of a healthy young man. But all is not as it seems when he starts to uncover the mystery of the body's origin and the organization that will kill to protect its cause. If you could, would you extend your life with a consciousness transfer?