Mind uploading—transferring an individual's personality to a computer—appears in several works of fiction. [1] It is distinct from the concept of transferring a consciousness from one human body to another. [2] [3] It is sometimes applied to a single person and other times to an entire society. [4] Recurring themes in these stories include whether the computerized mind is truly conscious, and if so, whether identity is preserved. [5] It is a common feature of the cyberpunk subgenre, [6] sometimes taking the form of digital immortality. [3] [7]
Cyberpunk writers and their successors have also frequently imagined the uploading of human minds into computers, thus creating a special sort of artificial intelligence that can free individuals of the limitations of biological bodies, a notion that would be notably extended in the work of Greg Egan.
Mind uploading—transferring an individual's personality to a computer—appears in several works of fiction. [1] It is distinct from the concept of transferring a consciousness from one human body to another. [2] [3] It is sometimes applied to a single person and other times to an entire society. [4] Recurring themes in these stories include whether the computerized mind is truly conscious, and if so, whether identity is preserved. [5] It is a common feature of the cyberpunk subgenre, [6] sometimes taking the form of digital immortality. [3] [7]
Cyberpunk writers and their successors have also frequently imagined the uploading of human minds into computers, thus creating a special sort of artificial intelligence that can free individuals of the limitations of biological bodies, a notion that would be notably extended in the work of Greg Egan.