Digital immortality – will it be possible one day?

In the digital age and in view of the progress of artificial intelligence, the question arises whether one day there will be digital immortality. Digital immortality is also called virtual immortality and is a hypothetical concept. Human awareness is transferred to a computer during so -called mind uploading. For this purpose, the personality of a person and their consciousness are fed into a digital substrate or in a virtual environment.
Computers or robots serve as a digital substrate. The goal of digital immortality is to avoid the death of the biological body. According to researchers, such a scenario will be possible in the future.

The concept of digital immortality

The concept of digital immortality is that the consciousness and spirit of a person continue to exist regardless of his body and its restrictions. The information would have to be stored on digital media. This eliminates the risk of loss of information.

Various scientists have already dealt with virtual immortality. The American futurologist Raymond enthusiast is one of these scientists. He predicts that in the middle of the 21st century it will be possible in the course of technological singularity to feed human awareness into a computer.

Virtual immortality could be obtained in the form of software.

Raymond Kurzweil predicts the technical singularity for 2045. He had already published a book entitled “The Singularity Is Near” (the singularity is close) in 2005. He describes the state in which people and machine merge together as technical singularity. In another book entitled “The Singularity Is Nearer” (the singularity is closer) of 2024, he again confirms this target brand.

According to some theorists, the feed-in of all people into a so-called Matrjoschka brain is also possible for the long-term preservation of mankind. Matrjoschka brain is a hypothetical mega structure based on the well-known Russian Matrjoschka dolls. These dolls are nested.

Digital immortality also describes the creation of a copy of a deceased person in order to communicate with this person beyond death. There are already different AI models. The AI ​​gains corresponding information from the legacies of deceased and produces files about the personality.

Mind uploading possible from a scientific point of view

A 15-year-old American boy asked the Curious Kids format, which belongs to the independent science platform The Conversation, the question of whether human awareness can be uploaded to a computer at some point. Children and adolescents can communicate with real researchers via Curious Kids and ask them questions.

The cognitive scientist Dobromir Rahhnev answered the question of the 15-year-old boy. In a detailed contribution, he explained that from a scientific point of view Mind Uploading is in principle possible. However, there are still two large hurdles to cope with. In the future, it will still need many generations before digital immortality can be implemented.

The human awareness in the computer

The idea behind digital immortality is radical and fascinating at the same time. The entire awareness of a person with his self -image, personality, thoughts and memories could be transferred to a digital system. The digital I would theoretically continue to exist. The same experiences would also be possible. Mind Uploading would even open up new possibilities.
The digital consciousness could experience scenarios that were not possible for people during his lifetime. A journey to the interior of the earth would be just as conceivable as the departure to distant planets.

Mapping of the brain and simulation of sensory stimuli as challenges

Digital immortality presents scientists and technicians with huge challenges. The human brain would have to be completely three -dimensional with trillion synapses and 86 billion neurons. So far, this has only been achieved with fruit flies.

All dynamic processes in the brain, which include the communication of the neurons with each other and their changes, would have to be simulated exactly.

Without sensory stimuli, an isolated digital awareness could collapse mentally. Man should remain mentally healthy in the simulation. This would only succeed if the smallest sensations such as heartbeat, breathing rhythm or smells are realistically modeled.

Mind uploading possible in the distant future

In addition to Raymond Kurzweil, other scientists also predict the technical singularity and the possibility that digital immortality can be implemented. The Russian entrepreneur Dmitri Itskov founded the “2045 Initiative” in 2011. The non-profit organization aims to transfer human awareness to a non-biological carrier system such as a hologram or an avatar by 2045.

Dobromir Rahhnev also basically considers Mind Uploading possible. However, he does not see the implementation until 2045, but only in 100 to 200 years. He considers earlier target brands to be completely unrealistic.