A Digital Replication of Your Brain

Robin Hanson, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University stated that in the future, using highly advanced technology, we may be able to achieve this. However, the more interesting part of this is what would happen to us when we create a digital replica of ourselves which will be able to do everything we do, exactly the way we do.

According to Professor Hanson, there are three major things that we would need in order to achieve this. Firstly, we would need extremely fast but cheap computers (to reduce the cost), something that will be possible in the near future. In addition, we need to have the ability to scan the individual brain of a person, in order to acquire special chemical details about their cells and how they are interconnected. Lastly, develop computer models of each kind of brain which would send input and output signals to the digital brain in order to give it a real-world experience. This idea of having a digital brain is very similar to the idea of “brain in a vat.”

As we start creating so many Digi-brains, we will also have the ability to connect it to other Digi-brains. They will form a very powerful network, a network which is actually a virtual world that exists merely only in computer hardware and software. Since their world has each individual brain connected to the rest, hence, one brain will have the ability to make decisions based on possibilities from all the other brains present in their virtual world. This would make the functioning of the world perfect!

In light of this ever-growing advancing world, you may ask, “What would happen to humans?” or “What would we be doing if all our work is being done through these digital brains?” The answer to this is very simple and for most people desirable too; we would be sitting on the beachside looking at the sun setting over the horizon as the calming waves would strike the shore. All we would have to do is to secure assets for the future which would be controlled by our virtual brain. It would be a utopian world, one in which the human race along with all the other species would thrive. The economies would be growing very fast primarily because the virtual world which consists of these highly efficient digital brains would be able to process information at rates 1000 times faster. This also means that all humans would get richer collectively. 

Another advantage of having such a brain is that you would literally be able to talk to your own self. Your Digi-brain would become like a consultant and would tell you what is the best thing for you to do.

Having discussed so many advantages of this technology and having finally understood how it would function we should also think a bit more about how this would impact the world in the long run – Would your great-grandchildren know the importance of money, or would they know what hard work is all about. In the new era (as we may like to call it then), people will start questioning the importance of life because they would just have to do very little work to live a very lavish life. Some will also have all the time in the world to introspect about what life actually is. 

Conclusively, we can say that it would change the world completely. Even though the same things are happening virtually, humans will not have to do any work anymore. However, would you like such a life, one in which you live without any boundaries, would relaxing by the beach not become boring after some time?