There Were Cyborgs on the Earth in Those Days
Some artificial-intelligence proponents are certain that, by the end of the 21st
century, cyborgs—the merger of humans with their electronic creations—will be reality.
Scientists will achieve this amazing feat through a process: Brain-scan technology
will permit them to scan a brain and download its information to computer memory.
They will "literally copy it, connection by connection, synapse by synapse,
neurotransmitter by neurotransmitter" (Ray Kurzweil, The Age Of Spiritual
Machines, 1999, p. 125). Eventually, they predict, the technology will exist
to enable us to reinstall this electronic file of someone's mind into another medium,
possibly humanlike but built with synthetic material.
"There will be nostalgia for our humble carbon-based roots, but there is nostalgia
for vinyl records also" (Kurzweil, p. 126). According to the scenario, we will
accept our new status because this brain-porting technology will provide the power
to conquer mortality. Immortality will simply be a matter of making frequent backups.
"While we are at it, we can add all human knowledge" to our new minds (Kurzweil).
In such a brave new world, scientists predict, we will not be limited by the human
brain, with its mere 100 trillion connections and synapses. GN
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