Living forever, in a machine

Eternal life has been mankind’s quest for time immemorial and it’s possible, say scientists, even with current technology. The catch being, you would be living in a machine, as a programme.

People could “live inside a machine” by turning their brain into a programme code once a computer capable of recreating some 100 trillion connections is built, a popular Cambridge neuroscientist said at a UK mass event.

Potentially, I think it is definitely a possibility,” Dr Hannah Critchlow of the Cambridge Neuroscience said at the popular Hay Festival in Wales, as quoted by The Telegraph. The scientist claimed it “would be possible” to recreate it as a computer programme: “If you had a computer that could make those 100 trillion circuit connections — then that circuit is what makes us, us. We have about 100 billion nerve cells and the most complicated circuit board you could image,” the neuroscientist, who produces and presents brainy interactive experiences for the public and has been named among the UK’s Top 100 scientists by the Science Council, told the audience.

She also debunked a common myth that humans only use some 10 per cent of their brain, explaining the whole thing is constantly running in idle mode to save energy and certain areas are only powered up when needed. She noted that despite only weighing about 1.5 kilos and taking up just two percent of the body’s mass, the brain “takes about 20 per cent of all energy consumption”.