Can a legendary trader teach you Cryptocurrency Speculation after death? Is 'consciousness transfer' feasible? AI researchers depict utopia

Can legendary traders exist even after death?

Can humans continue to exist after death? This ancient philosophical question has taken on new developments in the AI era.

According to Cointelegraph, AI researchers and futurists, including Elon Musk, are studying the technology of 'Mind Uploading', hoping to digitize human consciousness so that it can exist in the digital world even after physical death.

This technology, if successful, could lead to alarming applications. For example, legendary traders may still receive "digital immortality" after death, passing on their expertise and financial portfolios to other "living people."

However, Dario Amodei, former research vice president of OpenAI and CEO of Anthropic, believes that while conscious uploading may eventually be realized, it will not appear in the next ten years.

What is consciousness transfer?

So, what is consciousness transfer? Many neuroscientists believe that the human mind is largely a natural attribute of its neural network information processing.

Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi pointed out in their research that consciousness is a part of the natural world, and important mental functions such as learning, memory, and consciousness are all generated by purely physical and electrochemical processes in the brain, and are subject to applicable laws.

Prominent computer scientists and neuroscientists such as Christof Koch, Giulio Tononi, Douglas Hofstadter, etc., predict that advanced computers will be able to think, and even reach the level of creating consciousness.

Some theorists have proposed brain models and estimated the computational power needed for partial and complete simulation. If trends such as Moore's Law continue, some scientists believe that consciousness uploading may be achieved within decades. However, as of 2024, the technology is still in the theoretical stage.

Image source: Futuro What is Mind Uploading?

The utopia depicted by former senior OpenAI

Although the technology of consciousness transfer is still far beyond reach, some people have already begun to envision utopia.

Dario Amodei, former Vice President of Research at OpenAI, recently published a long article describing an AI-driven utopia where humans have almost eliminated mental and physical illnesses through AI.

In this article full of technological optimism, Amodei even philosophically reflects on the theme of consciousness upload. He said:

Although I believe that consciousness uploading is theoretically possible, in practice, even with powerful AI, it faces significant technical and social challenges that may extend beyond the 5-10 year timeframe we are discussing.

Image source: FounderooOpenAI former research vice president Dario Amodei

However, Amodei also warned that discussions about the future of AI (such as consciousness uploading) could lead people to overlook the real progress being made in the field at present.

1998 Animation 'Ling Yin' envisioned consciousness upload

In fact, as early as 1998, during the Internet bubble period (1995-2021), the Japanese experimental animation 'Serial Experiments Lain' conducted in-depth exploration of the concept of consciousness transfer.

According to the analysis of anime critic 7mononoke, the anime 'Re:Zero' can be seen as a prophecy of today's social networks. It not only depicts phenomena such as addiction to the internet, Internet witch hunts, and online bullying, but also introduces theories such as 'collective unconsciousness' and 'Schumann resonance'. It also has a preliminary imagination on the yet-to-be-realized consciousness uploading method.

Image source: The conceptual consciousness upload of the 1998 anime 'Lingyin' by Lingyin Animation.

However, unlike the consciousness transfer envisioned by the aforementioned scientists, the internet world depicted in 'Ling Yin' is fascinating but also harbors hidden dangers.

In the world of 'Ling Yin', people can connect to the 'Wired' network through devices, and after using a nano-mechanical 'Psyche drug' (set in Taiwan in the TV series), they can even temporarily connect to Wired without the need for a device.

At the beginning of the story, a female high school student jumped off a building to end her life. The reason was that she believed that by abandoning her physical body, she could fully connect to the Wired world and upload her consciousness, seeking 'digital immortality' in the online world, which is quite terrifying.

From the 1998 film 'Ringu' to the utopian future depicted by AI researchers today, the concept of 'consciousness uploading' has always sparked people's imagination. Although this technology is still in the theoretical stage, it will undoubtedly continue to provoke deep reflections on the essence of human consciousness, the boundaries between reality and virtuality, and thoughts on death and eternal life.

If you are interested in "Lingyin", you can watch the official anime on the Bilibili website (click here).