Brain Uploading: Difference between revisions

Compare with the [[Virtual Ghost]], where the uploaded brain can control a projection of themselves to interact with the real world. Contrast [[Neural Implanting]], where computer files are uploaded to the brain instead of the other way around, though both tropes are occasionally used together. See also [[Heart Drive]] and [[Body Backup Drive]]. Compare [[Living Memory]]. Also compare [[Save Scumming]].

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* In ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'', Lowe gains possession of a strange module from a [[God Guise|worshipper of George Glenn]], the so-called "First Coordinator". This black box just happens to contain ''Glenn's [[Brain In A Jar|actual brain]]'', and eventually Lowe's [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] teammate Professor hooks it up to a holographic projector, allowing George to captain the Junk Guild's battleship.

* In the manga ''GUNNM'' (''[[Battle Angel Alita]]'') {{spoiler|this is used as important final plot twist in the last episodes, when the mad doctor Desty Nova reveals that his organic brain was abducted and replaced with a biochip with his personal memories implanted. He found it years ago and became literally mad}}. In ''Last Order'' this practice appears to be diffused in some contexts (i.e. Zekka had practised it on himself {{spoiler|but also the main character "herself" becomes an unknowning example of this case; new revelations are follwed by "''[[What Measure Is A Man]]''" stuff}}). However, the sequel is stuffed with many other examples of futuristical or bizarre [[Weird Science]]. We have also the {{spoiler|[[Cloning Blues]] of Desty Nova}}.

* A variation on this is Yuzuki from ''[[Chobits (Manga)|Chobits]]'', who was created to be a [[Replacement Goldfish]] for Kokubunji's dead sister. He can't upload her mind directly, so he just programs as much information about his sister as he can, and for much of the series she attempts to emulate her. Then, after an accident wipes out all that data, Kokobunji declines to replace it, saying she should just [[Be Yourself|be herself]].

* ''[[Kaiba]]'' explores the idea of digitizing one's memories/souls to achieve immortality and looks at the potential side effects of such technology such as the increasing gap between the rich and poor, the casual way people might just delete the memory chips of their loved ones to make more space for other people, and how quickly people can throw away their bodies to swap for new ones.

** Mic Sounders Boom Robo was uploaded from Stallion White; this is why Mic was able to System Change to protect Stallion's sister Swan before his limiters were removed. No one's sure where the Cosmo Robo personality actually came from; maybe that's that that's what a young Super-AI actually acts like.

** Pei La Cain and Palus Abel, two of the villains from ''FINAL'', are supposedly based on the actual masters of the Green and Red Planets. Given that three of GGG's units are children, biologically or metaphorically, of Cain or Abel, including [[The Hero|Guy himself]], this results in brief angst. [[Determinator|Very brief]].

* This becomes the plot point in the ''[[Starcraft]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] ''Dark Templar Trilogy'', where a Protoss female named Zamara copies her consciousness into the brain of Jake Ramsey, a human archaeologist. While she is able to communicate with him and grant him some of her [[Psychic Powers]], the process will ultimately kill Jake. They travel to a Dark Templar world where priests record memories of still-living Protoss onto [[Green Rocks|Khaydarin crystals]]. This is different from what is done by the Khala-worshiping Protoss, who have specialized individuals known as Preservers, who store entire consciousnesses (not just memories) in their heads, "uploaded" through the [[Hive Mind]] at the moment of death. Zamara is the last Preserver. The goal is to put Zamara's consciousness onto one such crystal. Unfortunately, Zamara realizes that the Dark Templar only copy ''memories'', not entire individuals. However, the unusually large crystal they use not only manages to contain the entire consciousness of a Preserver but also that of a [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark Archon]] who threatens to destroy everything.

* In the ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'' series, there is one book in which a species of intelligent birds on the Hork-Bajir homeworld have the technology to create computer-backups of a person's mind, which can be inserted into someone else's brain after the original's death, to temporarily share their body. {{spoiler|The Andalite female Aldrea}} was stored in this way. In the Ellimist Chronicles {{spoiler|the ellimist is captured by a creature the size of a moon, who can absorb memories of any being it entangled. He eventually breaks free by downloading all the memories into himself. The trope appears again later when he starts making copies of himself, until he has become an entire starfleet. The copies never branch off to become separate people, however, as their minds are always in contact with each other via ship-to-ship communication.}}

* While not computerized, Characters in the ''Skulldugery Pleasant'' Universe can sleep for three nights with a gemstone called an echo stone beside them, and thereby imprinting it with there personality and memeorys. It then generates a hologram which can also talk, but is still imaterial. The stone needs to b recharged by putting it in it's cradle, which takes about a year.

* Max Barry's ''Machine Man'' has the main character, Dr. Charles Neumann, {{spoiler|eventually end up as this.}}

== Live-Action TV ==

* In the ''[[Star Trek the Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "The Ultimate Computer", Dr. Richard Daystrom turned the M-5 computer into an AI by impressing his own engrams (mental patterns) on its circuits.

* In ''[[Star Trek the Next Generation (TV)|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'':

** There's also something of a debate (albeit one with -arguably- a life on the line) in the episode "Measure of a Man" wherein Commander Maddox proposes an experiment that basically involves taking Data apart to see what makes him tick. His only reassurance that Data himself will be preserved by this is the fact that he is able to download all of Data's memories and experiences into a computer and reupload them when his body is reassembled (that's assuming he CAN actually reassemble him.) Data argues that only the events and recollections themselves will be preserved and the "essence" of the events and situations will be lost, therefore so will he; because ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|Star Trek]]'' wants to have its materialism and eat its dualism too, it's never made entirely clear whether this is because [[Our Souls Are Different|Data's soul wouldn't survive the transfer]], or just because Maddox isn't competent to do it properly. Still, theoretically uploading might be possible. They never got to take him apart to find out for sure.

* In the ''[[Star Trek Voyager (TV)|Star Trek Voyager]]'' episode "Lifesigns", the Doctor discovers that his dying patient has some sort of electrical implant in her brain that enables him to transfer her mind into the ship's computer and let her live as a hologram while he works on the disease in her actual body. Unfortunately, the circuitry containing her mind has only a limited time before it will degrade, thus causing her death unless she's transferred back to her body in time.

** In the new-series two-parter "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", the computer at the heart of the titular library is an uploaded version of a young girl who had a terminal illness. She's also capable of storing and running the personalities of anyone else who tries to teleport while in the library, as well as anyone who dies in the library while wearing neural relay.

** In the original series, the Time Lord Matrix was a supercomputer that contained the recorded ''memories'' of all the past presidents of Gallifrey, but apparently not their complete personalities.

* Turns up in, of all places, ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'' as the technology behind hologrammatic characters--every crew member has their personality and memories uploaded and stored so they are available come back as a [[Virtual Ghost]] after they die. Whether it is possible to activate a hologram while the crew member is still alive has never been raised. We do know it's possible to activate a single hologram multiple times - as shown with Rimmer times two.

* ''[[Overdrawn At the Memory Bank]]'' called it a "dopple" (as in doppelganger). Once your brain was uploaded to a [[When Things Spin Science Happens|spinning cube]] you could take a vacation and experience life as an animal. Aaron Fingle's dopple was botched when the technicians lost his body and were forced to upload his consciousness to a mainframe as an interim solution. The film indicated he had a limited amount of time before his consciousness degraded to the point of non-functionality. It wasn't really made clear if this was a function of the transfer, the inability of his body to continue function without the mind or some other factor, but then again it was a made for TV movie aired on PBS. It was also lampooned on [[MST3K]].

== Tabletop Games ==

* The "ghosts" in the ''[[GURPS]]'' setting ''[[Transhuman Space]]''.

* "Nybor's Psychic Imprint" spell in ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' (at least, 3rd ed).

* ''[[Car Wars]]''. Autoduelists store their memories on a machine and have clone bodies made. If they die in the arena, their memories are "played back" into their clone and they live again (well, sort of).

* Extremely common in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]''. Most of the surviving population of the solar system escaped the devastation of Earth by uploading their minds off-world, and backups are ubiquitous. Unfortunately, there's also a severe shortage of bodies, and millions of info-refugees desperate to own one.

== Real Life ==

* In all likelihood, while computer processing power will reach the point where it can emulate a human brain, this trope will probably be banned from ever occuring, due to the laundry list of moral, ethical, sociological, etc., problems with it, much like how human cloning is currently banned.

** It also gets into the idea of a [[Our Souls Are Different|soul]]. From a strictly biological definition, there does not appear to be a soul in human consciousness, and our minds could possibly never be truly emulated, relying heavily on the interactions of various chemicals and having involuntary subconscious changes, like mood fluctuations. Drawing a distinct delineation in the parts of the brain where aspects of the mind are solely housed too may prove impossible, as for instance personality, intelligence, and memory for instance are likewise impossible to completely separate. <!-- Because this is naturally contentious, please use Rule of Cautious Editing Judgment; I tried to make this as unbiased and clinical as I could. -->

[[Category:The Turing Option]]

[[Category:Transhuman]]