Hey everyone, you're listening to DEEP VISION, Asia's first community-supported astronomy podcast! I'm Abhishek Narayan—yep, your resident stargazer and founder of Galileo Multiverse, where, I mean... we try to make the whole universe feel like home. Today, we're heading down a rabbit hole that's as old as science fiction—can we actually upload our consciousness into robots? You know, that wild idea where your mind lives on in a machine... or in the cloud. I gotta tell you, this is one of those topics where the line separating fact from fiction is... well, blurry at best.This idea didn’t come from nowhere. I mean, think about Arthur C. Clarke, right? The guy who basically predicted half our modern tech in his stories. Or all those haunting episodes of Black Mirror—honestly, sometimes I had to watch those with the lights on. That show does not pull its punches when it comes to uploading memories, personalities... even whole lives into digital worlds. And, while those stories are scary, they're also... weirdly inspiring? Or maybe I just have an odd sense of inspiration.But, let's get real—science has been trying to catch up with this imagination for a while. There's this branch called brain emulation, right? The basic idea is, could you copy the connections and activity in your brain and, like, paste them into software? There's recent work in mapping neural activity, but man, it is... brutally hard. We're talking about billions of neurons, trillions of connections. And those connections aren't static. Mapping even a tiny part of a mouse brain is this massive project.Okay, side note—I remember the first time I read Isaac Asimov’s ‘I, Robot’ as a teenager. That was it for me. I was hooked. The idea of machines, not just doing calculations, but actually thinking, asking questions about themselves... like, what even makes a mind... that’s what sent me on this whole journey. So if you end up staying awake at night, blaming this episode for an existential crisis, well... know you’re in good company!Alright, let’s dive into the really tricky stuff here: what is consciousness, actually? Most neuroscientists will say we’re only scratching the surface. I mean, yeah, we know the brain takes in signals, makes decisions... but nobody—and I mean nobody—can point to a circuit in your head and say, “Yep, that’s where the you-ness lives.” There’s a lot of debate about whether consciousness is just data, just... bits floating around, or whether there’s something more—something that you can’t just code or simulate.Some people say, “Hey, if you could copy all my memories and neural connections, you’d basically have me, right?” But, hmm, it’s not that simple. Is it? There might be something uniquely biological. We just don’t know. I mean, if you zap a brain cell and a transistor in a computer—they’re fundamentally different. Or maybe not. Sometimes I feel like my brain is just running on low battery anyway.There have been some wild real-world experiments to try and get at this stuff. Like, take the 2019 MIT research where they basically tried moving memories from one worm to another. Not exactly human-level yet, but—think about it: if you can take learned behavior, or, you know, a memory of food, and transfer it between animals, are we... are we actually starting to decode identity? Or just... copying and pasting data? I mean, if I could copy someone else’s love of filter coffee straight into my brain, I’d probably never drink tea again.Now, let’s look at what would happen if—big if—we could actually upload a mind. Some people think, wow, that’s digital immortality! Never-ending consciousness, living in a computer, hopping between bodies or worlds. That’s... both exciting and, honestly, a little terrifying. Would it still be you? Or just a copy that thinks it’s you, like—your original is gone but now there’s this, like, version-two that loves samosas just as much?Let’s take something real-world for a second: the ‘2045 Initiative.’ This is a project out of Russia, and, no, I’m not making this up, they’re actually aiming for digital immortality by 2050. Yes, three decades from now. They want to build avatars and eventually upload minds into these things—basically turning sci-fi into, well, their annual plan. And sure, call me skeptical, but—even if the tech was ready, the ethical headaches are massive. What happens to your rights, your identity? Can you own digital property if you’re, uh, software?Actually, I got this email from a listener in Singapore—it was really thoughtful—who said she was scared about losing her actual, lived experience if her mind became digital. Like, would you still get that feeling, you know, when you stand under the stars and everything just... feels right? Or is that something you can’t upload? I couldn’t give her a perfect answer. Maybe no one can, not yet. Stuff like this—personal, emotional experience—is what makes the whole debate human, not just technical.So, that’s the mind-bending world of consciousness uploading! I’m guessing your brain’s buzzing as much as mine now. Next time, we’ll dig further—maybe into the line between artificial and biological intelligence, or wherever your questions lead us. Until then—keep wondering, keep questioning, and don’t forget to look up.

Episodes

Can We Upload Consciousness Into Robots?