Can We, Should We, Will We Live Forever Online

When typing for this blog I have often wished I could just think my thoughts at the computer and have them type out on the screen. This, no doubt, has much to do with the fact I am a one finger hunt and peck typist (having been streamed into drafting and electricity in grade nine rather than typing and home economics).

But this got me thinking bigger.

First some thoughts on what makes us human. I have heard it said that what separates us from the (other) animals is that we are aware of our existence. I think it is probably somewhat more than that, extending to the fact that we philosophize and question the meaning of life. Of course we do not know what (other) animals are thinking but clearly thinking and communicating are more important to us than simply the tasks necessary for our physical existence.

On to the idea of living forever. It seems the biggest obstacle to living forever is that our bodies wear out, particularly our hearts and lungs that keep oxygen and blood circulating. The other big factor is that the earth could not sustain everyone living forever unless we stopped reproducing.

But what if we did not need most of our physical body and all those resources we live off of. What if we only needed to keep our brains alive.

If the essence of being human is thinking and communication, what if we only needed our brains to do that.

What if we had a brain-computer interface that would let us think our thoughts to our computers and communicate with other humans, including living brains. What then.

How much space and resources would it take to just keep our brains alive after our bodies died,

And what if we did not even have to do that. What if we could transfer the essence of our brains, our intellectual being and memories onto computer chips that required virtually no storage space and only required a few millivolts of energy to be sustained forever.

The big question is would you want to live forever on the Internet watching mankind make the same mistakes over and over forever and ever.

Ever Wish You Could Really Commit Something to "Memory"

If you are a blogger or student or anybody who writes a lot I am sure you do a lot of pre-writing, thinking things through and even composing articles in your head when you are not at your computer. Some of the best things I have never published have been written that way. They never got published because they never got committed to my hard drive. By the time I got around to writing what I wanted to write the brilliant piece of work that was in my mind had disappeared from my thoughts.

Don't you wish that as you composed those brilliant pieces in your mind you could actually commit them to memory somewhere for later retrieval and editing. Wouldn't it be great if you could have a memory card slot in your brain to save them too and then pop into a USB slot and edit.

So are there any techie entrepreneurs out there working on this (besides the CIA of, course, who are no doubt working on secret brain implants to record your every thought).