A Reddit essay proposes storing the original brain in a secure facility and living through a network of bodies
A Reddit essay proposes storing the original brain in a secure facility and living through a network of bodies
On 3 August, the user NoSignificance152 published an essay on digital immortality. He proposes keeping the living biological brain as the seat of consciousness, while artificial bodies, bioprinted bodies, and robotic bodies serve as its remote means of perception and action.
Mind uploading raises a simple but troubling question. A computer may reproduce a person's memories, habits, and personality, but who wakes up after the copy is made? The essay's author answers that the subject remains wherever the original living brain continues to function.
“A digital copy may be a perfect duplicate while the real you dies. Keep the original biological brain in a well-protected facility, and the continuous stream of consciousness will remain unbroken.”
His proposed scenario follows from this answer. The brain connects to a body in another city, allowing the person to see and act there. It connects to a robot when greater physical resilience is required, or to a bioprinted body when the person wants a different bodily experience. The author suggests “renting a shell” at the destination instead of traveling there. In this model, the body can be changed while the stream of experience remains within a single brain.
An essay on gradually transferring brain functions to a silicon system offered a different answer to the same concern: replace the functions of the original substrate one at a time while it continues to operate. In the present proposal, the brain is not replaced. Instead, it is connected to new bodies. The difference lies not in the quality of the digital copy, but in which substrate continues to have the experiences.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on personal identity examines memory, psychological connectedness, and the causal continuity of mental states. Copying makes this debate especially difficult because two systems can begin with the same biography, then acquire different experiences and become distinct subjects of experience.
The author chooses one possible answer: the original brain preserves the same stream of consciousness, while new bodies merely expand its access to the world.