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
