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  • Maybe it was a little sad

  • to say goodbye to your physical body,

  • but, at least you still have your

  • consciousness, your mind, and your memories

  • stored safely in the cloud.

  • And in the virtual world,

  • anything that was once

  • real, physical, and finite,

  • can simply be replaced.

  • But,

  • Is eternal youth and everlasting life

  • all that it's made out to be?

  • Or is there a dark side

  • to cloud consciousness?

  • The science of being able to

  • digitize your brain and upload it to the cloud

  • is highly controversial and,

  • ultimately, inconclusive.

  • Some experts say

  • the technology will never exist,

  • but others promise that we'll have it by 2050.

  • In fact, there's already a waitlist.

  • An American startup called Nectome

  • claims that through a process called

  • they can preserve both the external

  • and internal structure of your brain

  • in perfect microscopic detail.

  • They do this by replacing

  • the blood flow in your brain

  • with embalming chemicals,

  • basically turning your meaty processor

  • into frozen glass.

  • And if you have haven't already guessed it,

  • you can't survive this procedure...

  • ...at least, not physically.

  • In theory, you'll "live" forever, but,

  • but that's only if Nectome figures out

  • how to upload your brain to the cloud,

  • and then revive it.

  • Let's assume they do.

  • Benjamin Franklin once wrote that,

  • "In this world nothing can be said to be certain,

  • except death and taxes."

  • But it turns out,

  • immortality might come at an even higher price.

  • Opting to be uploaded into the cloud

  • might have some unforeseen consequences.

  • Today, the cloud is pretty much

  • just virtual storage.

  • You pay a company a monthly fee

  • to store all your family photos

  • so that their awkwardness

  • doesn't slow down your computer!

  • But now we're talking about you;

  • and all your unique traits,

  • and special qualities, and

  • all the wonderful things

  • you have to offer the world,

  • being uploaded to a server which

  • probably isn't powered by a benevolent

  • and somewhat scary-looking

  • bearded man in the sky.

  • More likely, your eHeaven

  • will be run by some tech giant,

  • who will have access to

  • your life's worth of data,

  • along with everyone else's.

  • Your continued existence

  • would be subscription-based,

  • requiring you to pay for storage and

  • maintenance on some high-tech server.

  • Your new home, and,

  • I suppose your identity as well,

  • will look like this.

  • Because this is really what the cloud is.

  • It's basically a wide interconnected network

  • of warehouses that are filled with hard drives,

  • and spread across multiple locations

  • so that your data can be stored

  • in several places at once;

  • just in case one of these warehouses

  • were to go offline.

  • So unless you were rich enough to build

  • your own little private network of hard drives,

  • the term "home office"

  • takes on a very dark meaning...

  • Would the company you subscribe to

  • be able to profit from their access

  • to your mind, memories, and talents?

  • What stops you from being copied

  • and coded as some kind of A.I.?

  • And then,

  • what if we got into androids or surrogacy?

  • If technology advances to the point

  • where we can cheat death,

  • why not cheat age or health?

  • For the first time ever,

  • you could have the body

  • you always wanted.

  • Forever!

  • But if you couldn't afford

  • a top of the line model,

  • what might you be forced to settle for?

  • But actually, what's far more likely

  • than you becoming an android,

  • or having your brain stored in the cloud,

  • is having your brain stored in a box!

  • Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov

  • is currently developing

  • what he calls a happiness box.

  • It's basically a computer that

  • can send sensations to your brain,

  • just like your body does today.

  • In fact, the happiness box is being developed

  • to replace your body.

  • If you don't totally get it,

  • think of the movie The Matrix.

  • That might be the closest thing

  • to immortality.

  • So what would you choose?

  • The red pill?

  • Or the blue pill?

  • Right now, we don't need to worry about it!

  • Without knowing if the technology will exist, or

  • when it will become available,

  • the most important question

  • we should be asking ourselves is

  • how to make the most

  • of the limited time we have.

  • Need some ideas?

  • Come back soon for more 'What If.'

Maybe it was a little sad

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