Into the future

Downloading memories

The greatest debate of them all. What really makes us who we are? Our awareness, our memories, our thoughts, our imagination and all the things we’ve learnt. All of this is filed away in our brain. When we die, the first thing to go off the radar is the brain. Everything we have learnt, a lifetime of memories, the awareness that we exist... all gone! What if all that resides in the brain could be downloaded onto a flash drive – a literal backup of our brain and everything that we do when we are alive? The possibilities are endless. While our body is dead and gone, could that brain process backup still tick inside a special computer? Would we be aware that we still exist? Could this backup then be used to recreate or repopulate in the future when we have moved towards perfect cloning or robohumanic beings?

Even if we move away from the pros and cons and heavy futuristic Terminator-like scenarios, the potential of tapping and backing up the great minds of this world are amazing.

Think of every scientist, visionary and innovator whose amazing thought process has been lost. If only we could have a way of retaining it and keeping all that ran thorough that exceptional mind! Technologies that read our thoughts and map memories are already in place and being used. Ian Pearson, head of British Telecom’s futurology unit, seems to think that this will happen in the middle of this century but will only be available to the super rich. So start saving if you want cyber-immortality!