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VektroidPlus t1_j1p7qc4 wrote

Reply to comment by Honest_Switch1531 in Is it possible to Live Forever? by gg2ezpzlemonsqz

I don't really see it ever being possible to upload or transfer your consciousness outside of your body.

Most psychology and biology agree that the brain and body can't really exist without one another.

The brain is also far more complex than what we thought. It's nothing like a computation machine or memory storage device. It's more like a corporation with different departments running different tasks that are governed by a central body that acts as our facing consciousness. It's also incredibly imperfect. It's prone to errors or even certain 'departments' briefly taking over.

These 'departments' very likely mean we have different consciousnesses with different desires, consider themselves a different age, and identify as different genders and have preferred sexualities. They're also all developing at different rates as life happens for a person.

It seems like such a daunting task to comprehend what makes us tick let alone capture that and somehow transfer it over. There's more scientific evidence about reversing cellular degeneration than anything about consciousness transferring.

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youcandanch t1_j1pyj7p wrote

this is absolutely fascinating, any recommendations on places to start reading on this? would love to dig in a bit more to understand it.

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VektroidPlus t1_j1qfiyj wrote

Michio Kaku has a great book called the 'The Future of the Mind'. Not exactly the most reputable since he's a theoretical physicist and not a neuroscientist.

His writing though, is very easy to read. He gives a great overview of how humanity has thought about the brain throughout history, important scientific discoveries, and where neuroscience is at now. The rest of the book is his speculation about where he thinks we will go in the future with neuroscience.

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Teripid t1_j1qd5pb wrote

Well said. I'd add another caveat too. Everyone reading this is currently a collection of cells, electrical impulses, etc.

If you could magically ctrl+c, ctrl+v that person over and had two completely identical human bodies and thoughts you'd likely just have someone who behaved exactly like them but they'd be separate entities. Defining what makes a human and continuing it is still near high-scifi.

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uh_buh t1_j1pudcq wrote

Recent psych degree graduate, this is absolutely correct, and your analogy to explain is a really great one.

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TheSinfulBlacksheep t1_j1qc2t8 wrote

So the brain is something more akin to a colony of zooid organisms like a Portuguese man 'o war? Obviously not at the cellular level, but in the sense that these are specialized individual animals that kind of cluster together to build the whole. Am I on the right track here?

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VektroidPlus t1_j1qj74m wrote

I think we can say that about most living creatures as a whole though and not necessarily just the brain. I'm way oversimplifying it, but most living beings are just a collection of complex cells, from brain to body.

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LordOfSpamAlot t1_j1qy2qa wrote

>The brain is also far more complex than what we thought. It's nothing like a computation machine or memory storage device. It's more like a corporation with different departments running different tasks that are governed by a central body that acts as our facing consciousness.

Do you have any sources? This is an interesting topic.

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