{"id":20146,"date":"2022-12-09T11:31:37","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=20146"},"modified":"2022-12-09T11:31:37","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T10:31:37","slug":"could-you-port-your-mind-into-another-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/12\/09\/could-you-port-your-mind-into-another-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Could you port your mind into another body?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"popcorn<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Could you port your mind into another body?<\/h2>\n\n

The Avatar <\/em>sequel is out this month, in which lead character Jake Sully has left his human body behind…<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

by STEPHEN KELLY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

Avatar:<\/em> The Way Of Water, <\/em>the sequel to the highest grossing film of all time, raises a lot of questions. Primarily, can anyone remember what happened in the first Avatar? <\/em>And why is James Cameron seemingly devoting the rest of his life to making these movies? But for the purpose of this article, the most important question concerns the film\u2019s central idea: how feasible is it to transfer your consciousness into another body? Guillaume Thierry, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at Bangor University, is not convinced. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a popular idea that the brain is just like a computer, but it\u2019s not,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not made up of data that can be transferred from one brain to another. It\u2019s alive, and we don\u2019t know why or how. If I wanted to transfer my memories into a machine, I would need to know what my memories are made of. But nobody knows.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

To explain the brain\u2019s complexity, Thierry cites a study from the Allen Institute For Brain Science in Seattle, which managed to map all the neurons in 1mm3<\/sup>of a mouse\u2019s brain. \u201cIt was a minuscule amount of tissue,\u201d he says. \u201cBut within it there were over 100,000 neurons and more than a billion connections between them. If you increase that to the size of the human brain, it\u2019s staggering. It\u2019s well beyond what people think.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

In order to store that 1mm3<\/sup> of a mouse\u2019s brain, two million gigabytes were required. This leads to one of Thierry\u2019s biggest concerns: no hard drive could possibly hold the human brain. \u201cIt\u2019s well beyond the capacity of even the biggest single-memory computer,\u201d he says. \u201cNot only that, but no artificial brain can simulate the speed of a real brain. One is purely sequential. The other one is fully parallel. <\/p>\n\n

The difference in speed is mesmerising. Whatever is happening in the brain is happening in real time. All the neurons can communicate through oscillation patterns in real time. A computer can\u2019t do that forever.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

An idea that Thierry finds more feasible is the first Avatar <\/em>film\u2019s concept of using your brain to receive the sensory input of another body. \u201cYou could have a system that reads, somehow, all the input from the senses in the second body and sends them, in real time, to your brain,\u201d he says. \u201cThen everything that your brain wants to do can be sent back to the second body to make it react. The brain is basically an input\/output interface. It gets some sensory input, and it produces a motor output and action.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

But, says Thierry, the point it becomes \u201ccompletely delirious\u201d is when the main character, Jake Sully, has his mind transferred permanently to his Na\u2019vi avatar. \u201cYou can probably read the input and output to some level, but the big problem is the rest of the brain function. You can\u2019t transfer that. It\u2019s just not possible. We have no access to it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s obvious why people would want to transfer their mind into something else, says Thierry. \u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t you want to be a blue warrior on a fantastic planet with lots of beautiful women on dragons?\u201d But it\u2019s a desire based on a false belief: that the mind is separate from the body. <\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe great majority of scientists believe that the mind is embodied,\u201d he says. \u201cIt emerges from the interaction between neurons and molecules. The minute these neurons change in their structure, or the molecules change in their nature, your mind\u2019s gone. And if you want to test that, drink four glasses of wine and look at yourself in the mirror. You\u2019ll see that your perception of yourself has changed. Why? Because the chemical state of your mind defines who you are \u2013 a holistic entity, a brain-mind system.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

VERDICT<\/strong>
Nope, there\u2019s no chance of you plugging your mind into another body. No Na\u2019vi avatars for you.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n\n

by STEPHEN KELLY<\/strong> (@StephenPKelly<\/a><\/em>) Stephen is a culture and science writer, specialising in television and film.<\/p>\n\n

ILLUSTRATIONS: ADAM GALE MAIN ILLUSTRATION: DANIEL CRESPO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Avatar sequel is out this month, in which lead character Jake Sully has left his human body behind… 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