Playboy, January-February 2010
Let’s say you transfer your mind into a computer—not all at once but gradually, having electrodes inserted into your brain and then wirelessly out- sourcing your faculties. Your vision is rerouted through cameras, your memories are stored in a net of microprocessors and so on, until at last the transfer is complete. As neuro-engineers get to work boosting the performance of your uploaded brain so you can now think as a god, your fleshy brain is heaved into a bag of medical waste. As you—for now let’s just call it “you”—start a new chapter of existence exclusively within a machine, an existence that will last as long as there are server farms and hard-disk space and the solar power to run them, are “you” still actually you?
