Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has said a lot of seemingly fantastic things, such as his belief that humans may eventually “transplant” consciousness into robots, to have eternal life.
Musk, said in a recent interview: ” I think there’s a good chance that this will become a reality. We can transplant things that make us so unique. Of course, if your consciousness is no longer in the original body, then there will definitely be a difference, but in terms of preserving our memories and our personalities, I think we can do it.”
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According to Musk, this technology will gradually evolve from today’s computer storage. He said: “Our memories are stored in the form of pictures and videos in our mobile phones and computers, and these devices enhance our ability to communicate and allow us to do more things that would otherwise be considered magical. We have greatly enhanced with computers the human brain.”
For decades, the idea of extending the human lifespan by transplanting consciousness into an artificial body has emerged in science fiction, with the 1964 science fiction novel Dune dubbing the creature a “Cymek.” Many experts believe that a “consciousness transplant” will certainly happen, but no one can predict exactly when.
In a 2019 article in The Wall Street Journal, Michael SA Graziano, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University, wrote that the implantation of consciousness requires two technologies: one is to create an artificial brain, and the second is to scan the human brain so that patterns can be replicated in the artificial brain to accurately grasp the connections between its neurons.
“Creating an artificial brain is relatively simple,” Graziano said. “But to transplant consciousness, we might need a scanner that doesn’t kill the subject, we need it to scan very finely. Technology doesn’t exist today. The most optimistic prediction is for a consciousness transplant within a few decades, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in a few hundred years.”
Musk’s current start-up, Neuralink, is working to develop a “brain-computer interface.” In his own words, this could one day allow people to “store memories as backups, and restore memories”. But in an interview, Musk said the company’s current goals are more realistic.
“Neuralink is just for brain injuries, spinal injuries, etc. in the short term,” he said. “So in the next few years, Neuralink’s products will only help those who have lost a limb or have some kind of traumatic brain injury.”
Notably, Musk himself does not seem to want immortality, nor does he support similar ideas from others. He said: “I don’t think we should try to keep people alive for too long, it’s going to suffocate society because, in fact, most people don’t change their minds. So if they don’t die, we’re stuck with old ideas. If it is difficult to extricate itself, society will not progress.”
If consciousness transplantation is possible in the relatively short future, who is likely to want to try this technique? In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, believes that Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos could become Cymek. But Bezos has never publicly expressed any interest in such technologies, though he does invest in research on longevity and anti-aging.
