Digital immortality: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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{{Short description|Hypothetical concept of storing a personality in digital form}}

'''Digital immortality''' (or "'''virtual immortality'''")<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4240849|jstor=4240849|last1=Farnell|first1=Ross|title=Attempting Immortality: AI, A-Life, and the Posthuman in Greg Egan's "Permutation City"|journal=Science Fiction Studies|year=2000|volume=27|issue=1|pages=69–91}}</ref> is the hypothetical concept of storing (or transferringcloning) a person's personality in digital [[Substrate (materials science)|substrate]], i.e., a [[computer]], [[robot]] or [[cyberspace]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Graziano|first=Michael S. A.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1084330876|title=Rethinking consciousness : a scientific theory of subjective experience|date=2019|isbn=978-0-393-65261-1|edition=1|location=New York, NY|oclc=1084330876}}</ref> ([[mind uploading]]). The result might look like an [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]] behaving, reacting, and thinking like a person on the basis of that person's digital archive.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Parkin|first1=Simon|title=Back-up brains: The era of digital immortality|url=http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150122-the-secret-to-immortality|publisher=BBC|access-date=7 June 2015|date=23 January 2015}}</ref><ref name="vhum">{{cite book|last1=Rothblatt|first1=Martine|title=Virtually Human: The Promiseand the Perilof Digital Immortality|date=2014|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing |isbn=978-1491532911|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y7JzAwAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name="dyi">{{cite book|last1=Sofka|first1=Carla|title=Dying, Death, and Grief in an Online Universe: For Counselors and Educators|date=February 2012|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0826107329|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MkcGiLeATe8C&q=digital+immortality&pg=PA25}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=DeGroot|first1=Doug|title=Intelligent Virtual Agents: 4th International Workshop, IVA 2003, Kloster Irsee, Germany, September 15-17, 2003, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in ... / Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence)|date=5 November 2003|isbn=978-3540200031|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzZtCQAAQBAJ&q=digital+immortality&pg=PA136|access-date=7 June 2015|chapter=VideoDIMs as a framework for Digital Immortality Applications|publisher=Springer }}</ref> After the death of the individual, this avatar could remain static or continue to learn and self-improve autonomously (possibly becoming [[seed AI]]).

A considerable portion of [[transhumanists]] and [[singularitarians]] place great hope into the belief that they may eventually become [[Immortality|immortal]]<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cohan|first1=Peter|title=Google's Engineering Director: 32 Years To Digital Immortality|website=[[Forbes]] |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/06/20/googles-engineering-director-32-years-to-digital-immortality/|access-date=7 June 2015|date=20 June 2013}}</ref> by creating one or many non-biological functional copies of their brains, thereby leaving their "biological shell". These copies may then "live eternally" in a version of digital "heaven" or paradise.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lewis|first1=Tanya|title=The Singularity Is Near: Mind Uploading by 2045?|url=http://www.livescience.com/37499-immortality-by-2045-conference.html|website=livescience.com|access-date=7 June 2015|date=17 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Strickland|first1=Jonathan|title=How Digital Immortality Works|url=http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/digital-immortality.htm|website=howstuffworks.com|date=12 April 2011|access-date=7 June 2015}}</ref>

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The Digital Immortality Institute explores three factors necessary for digital immortality. First, at whatever level of implementation, avatars require guaranteed [[Internet]] accessibility. Next, avatars must be what users specify, and they must remain so. Finally, future representations must be secured before the living users are no more.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.digital-immortality.org/whatis.html |title=What is Digital Immortality? |publisher=Digital-immortality.org |access-date=2012-03-20 |archive-date=2013-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605093616/http://www.digital-immortality.org/whatis.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The aim of [[Dmitry Itskov]]'s [[2045 Initiative]] is to "create technologies enabling the transferclone of an individual’s personality to a non-biological carrier, and extending existence, including to the point of immortality".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Eördögh|first1=Fruzsina|title=Russian Billionaire Dmitry Itskov Plans on Becoming Immortal by 2045|url=http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/russian-billionaire-dmitry-itskov-plans-on-becoming-immortal-by-2045|access-date=7 June 2015|date=7 May 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524041430/http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/russian-billionaire-dmitry-itskov-plans-on-becoming-immortal-by-2045|archive-date=24 May 2015}}</ref>

== Method ==

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* ''[[Memories with Maya]]'' is a novel on the concept of digital immortality.

* ''[[Charles Platt (author)#Novels and novellas|The Silicon Man]]'' describes [[Cryonics]] as a precursor to digital immortality.

* In the 1998 novel ''[[Vast (novel)|Vast]]'' by [[Linda Nagata]] "ghosts" are recorded memories and personalities that can be transferredcloned to another body or kept in electronic storage, granting a limited form of immortality.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vast Review|url=https://www.sfsite.com/06b/vast83.htm|publisher=SF Site|access-date=17 January 2016}}</ref>

* In the TV series ''[[Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future]]'', Overmind and Lord Dread planned to digitize all human beings to be able to create a new world.

* In the TV series ''[[Black Mirror]]'' it commonly features the themes and ethics of digital humans, called "cookies," across multiple episodes. In ''San Junipero'', for example, people's consciences are uploaded to the cloud.

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*In ''The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead'' by Frank Tipler.

* In the 2014 film ''[[Transcendence_(2014_film)|Transcendence]]'' , Will's (Johnny Depp) consciousness is uploaded into the quantum computer project he developed

*In the 2015 film ''[[Chappie (film)|Chappie]]'', a robot and a flash drive are used for consciousness transfercloning.

*[[This (The X-Files)|'This']], episode 2 of series 11 of ''[[The X-Files]]'', concerns the uploading of [[The Lone Gunmen|Richard Langly]]'s consciousness into a virtual [[Tartarus]]; where people are exploited as 'digital [[Slavery|slaves]]'.

*The 2020 aired TV series [[Upload (TV series)|Upload]] features a narrative of the protagonist having their entire consciousness uploaded to a digital world after death.