Elon Musk is sure that people will be able to live forever by digitizing their consciousness

Elon Musk says a lot of seemingly fantastic things. For example, the billionaire and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla seems to believe that humans can live forever by digitizing their brains. The edition told in more detail CNBC.

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“I think it’s possible,” Musk, 50, recently said. Yes, we could upload what we think makes us so unique. The body definitely matters, but in terms of preserving our memories, our identity, I think we could do that."

According to Musk, such technology will be a gradual evolution of modern forms of computer memory.

“Our memories are stored in our phones and computers with photos and videos,” he said. “Computers and phones expand our communication capabilities by allowing us to do things that would be considered magical. We have already greatly expanded the human brain with computers.”

The concept of extending human life by downloading consciousness into synthetic bodies has been a staple of science fiction for decades, and the 1964 science fiction novel Dune refers to such creatures as "cymeks". Some experts today believe that one day mind-uploading technology may actually become a reality, but the timeline is incredibly unclear.

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In a 2019 Wall Street Journal essay, Michael Graziano, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University, wrote that mind uploading would require two technologies: an artificial brain and a human brain scan that could "accurately measure how its neurons are connected to each other, to be able to replicate this pattern in an artificial brain.”

Graziano noted that it would be relatively easy to create an artificial brain.

“But to upload a human brain, we probably need a scanner that does not kill the subject, and we would need it to scan about a hundred million times more detail,” he wrote. “Such technology does not yet exist. The most optimistic forecasts suggest that mind uploading will take several decades, but I wouldn't be surprised if it takes centuries."

One of Musk's current startups, Neuralink, is working on "brain-machine interfaces" that Musk himself says will one day allow people to "back up your memories and restore them." But Musk emphasized that his company's current goals are much more practical.

“In the short term, Neuralink is treating brain injuries, spinal injuries and so on,” he said. “Therefore, for many years, Neuralink products will simply be useful for those who have lost the ability to use their arms or legs, or simply received some kind of head injury.”

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Notably, Musk himself doesn't seem to want to live forever - and he doesn't endorse the idea for anyone else.

“I don’t think we should be trying to make people live very long,” he shared his opinion. “It would suffocate society, because the truth is that most people don't change their minds. They just die. So if they don't die, we'll be stuck with old ideas and society won't develop."

If mind uploading becomes possible in the relatively near future, there are rumors in the Musk family about who would like to try it out: Musk's former partner Grimes recently named Origin founder Jeff Bezos as someone who is "going to be a simek."

Bezos, 58, has shown no public interest in such technology, although he has a history of investing in longevity and anti-aging research.

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