39,327
edits
Brain Uploading: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.BrainUploading 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.BrainUploading, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 17:
There's also a pile of legal, moral, and theological questions that might be addressed in the story:
* Is the AI considered to be the same person as its human predecessor or a digital twin? Is it [[What Measure Is a Non
* Is one copy responsible for the debts and/or crimes incurred or committed by another copy? Is the original responsible, assuming nondestructive uploading?
* Assuming nondestructive, undetectable uploading, is uploading without consent of the original a crime? What if the original objects, but the upload doesn't want to be deleted? What about uploading dead people who specified they didn't want to be uploaded after death?
* What do you do with the backups of an upload who commits suicide?
* Would the soul be copied over? Is there a soul at all to be copied? While some people might see the debunking of mind-body separation as just another case of [[Science Marches On|science marching on]], a great deal of people would find the idea that even their mind is quantifiable to be [[Nightmare Fuel|rather frightening]]. Or worse, would see those who go through with the upload as [[Not Even Human|less than]] [[What Measure Is a Non
Widespread [[Brain Uploading]] tends to lead to [[The Singularity]] or something very much like it. Or it may be a ''result'' of said Singularity.
Line 34:
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Galaxy Express 999]]'' has a couple of instances of a gigantic supercomputer being used to simulate the brain of a deceased human. Whether the series' main antagonists, the "Machine-Humans", also qualify or are simply disembodied human brains inhabiting robotic shells is not made clear.
* ''[[Ghost in The Shell]]'', when not focusing on sociology, likes to take a trip down this lane. Memories can be copied easily and reliably, but a individual's 'ghost', the verse's term for consciousness, can not be safely or easily altered or copied. Expensive and rare techniques called 'ghost-dubbing' actually upload this consciousness into an electronic format, but the result is always more limited or more insane than the biological version, and the biological suffers heavy brain damage and eventually death as a result, which is why ghost dubbing is illegal in the GITS universe. It's not really clear that the resulting electronic copies are the same mind, or just a [[What Measure Is a Non
** Interestingly, ''[[Ghost in The Shell Stand Alone Complex]]'' has a South American guerilla hero/Che Guevera [[Captain Ersatz|analog]] undergo [[
** In one of the ''Stand Alone Complex'' episodes this golden rule gets oddly broken, when a disappointed indie movie director makes a perfect movie inside his [[
** The second feature film, ''Innocence'', features a multitude of ghost-dubbed dolls manipulated for the purpose of freeing the enslaved children used to dub them. It raises the question of whether, being imparted with some aspect of human consciousness, the dubbed dolls cannot be considered alive, and thus victims themselves in the film's violent plot.
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'s'' EVA units and the MAGI supercomputer are borderline examples. More like "[[Soul Jar|Soul Uploading]]" tho'.
* 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 [[
* 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}}.
* In one ''[[Detective Conan (Manga)|Detective Conan]]'' [[Non Serial Movie]] ''Phantom of Baker Street'', the [[Child Prodigy]] coded an artificial intelligence that is practically himself, {{spoiler|and then killed himself. This artificial intelligence then haunted an [[Deep
* 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.
Line 57:
** [[Big Bad|Crux Dogatie]] does something similar in the original ''Crossbone Gundam'' story: {{spoiler|knowing he's at the end of his life, he creates multiple biological computers and uploads his consciousness into one. Then he copies it into the rest. The result is ten Crux Dogaties running around in machine bodies, all working toward the same goal.}}
** ''Steel Seven'' has Shadow of Callisto transferring his consciousness into a bio-computer after his defeat on Earth, using his telepathic brother's mind as a medium. This bio-computer is then loaded into the Digitus so that he can fight alongside his still-living twin in the final battle.
* In ''[[Professor Layton and The Eternal Diva]]'', {{spoiler|Melina's memories were uploaded into a device her father constructed and disguised as a musical instrument, so he could find a body that matches hers and create a [[Replacement Goldfish]] [[What the Hell, Hero?|by erasing the conciousness of an innocent girl]]. Once he actually did it, Melina [[What Have I Become?|did not agree.]]}}
Line 73:
** Tony Stark being the tech geek he is, he couldn't resist the temptation to make a back-up of his brain on a portable hard drive. Came in handy after he ended up wiping his mind at the end of the ''Worlds Most Wanted'' arc.
** The stand-alone comic book ''Hypervelocity'' is entirely about Tony Stark 2.0, a digital version of himself that occupies his suit. As the comic progresses, he slowly gets corrupted by a rogue virus girl program.
* The [[Ultimate Universe]] [[Continuity Reboot]] of [[Paperinik New Adventures]] had this trope when {{spoiler|Lyonard [[Punny Name|D'Aq]] uploaded his brain as a side result of him exploring a virtual world}}. Then this trope became a [[Chekhov's Gun]] when {{spoiler|after Lyonard got [[Killed Off for Real]] (or, more precisely, got [[One
* This happened to Cliff Steele (Robotman) in [[Grant Morrison]]'s [[Doom Patrol (Comic Book)|Doom Patrol]] after the Candlemaker crushed his brain. Fortunately, he was hooked up to the Chief's computer at the time, and his intelligence was downloaded on a disk. Once he figured out what happened, he was able to return to his body, though he was pretty freaked out by the entire process.
* The Battlestar Galactica comic 'The Final Five'has this as the origin of the Thirteenth Tribe. Originally, they were members of the other 12 tribes but after uploading their consciousnesses into new cybernetic bodies were treated as a new group. This includes the idea that the Thirteenth Tribe have committed some kind of 'sin', apparently borne out by the intervention of supernatural/sufficiently advanced beings.
Line 84:
* [[Epileptic Trees|Possibly]] Jarvis in the ''[[Iron Man (Film)|Iron Man]]'' movie.
* ''[[Film/The Sixth Day|The Sixth Day]]'' features a way of making copies of a person mind that can be uploaded into clone bodies. Unfortunately as uploading is often done after death you get memories of dying.
* ''[[Star Trek:
Line 106:
* In ''Destination: Void" by Frank Herbert, the entire purpose of the apparently impossible, deliberately crippled interstellar colonization mission is determined by the crew to be to force them to create (because they are doomed to die if they don't), beyond the reach of the disaster that would likely ensue, an artificial intelligence beyond the capacity of a human brain. This is done by first building a physical analog of a human brain, but with several times the complexity, then once it has displayed the necessary capabilities, uploading the mind of one of the creators into it, and parts of the personalities of the others. {{spoiler|This results in the creation of a god, like in all Frank Herbert books.}}
* This is the entire plot of ''Circuit of Heaven'' by Dennis Danvers. 99% or so of humanity has uploaded their consciousness into "The Bin", a giant computer storage that lets them all live virtual lives. Those who chose to remain behind live in a [[Crapsack World]] where everything's been abandoned. They are allowed to temporarily visit their relatives within The Bin, doing a temporary brain uploading.
* ''Mindscan'' by Robert Sawyer has this technology being commercialized. Rich people get what's essentially a super MI that creates a perfect duplicate of the brain at the time and it gets uploaded in to an android body. The real people then retire to a lunar colony that's extra-legal and the droids will claim to be the humans and designed to look like them at their peak of life. The book then revolves over [[What Measure Is a Non
* This is common in ''[[Down and Out In The Magic Kingdom]]'' by [[Cory Doctorow]]; anyone with enough Whuffie can backup themselves at will, a restore is made using a clone body. Since the process is so easy and basically free, it's common for people to swap their body for a clone-and-restore for things like the common cold.
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]:
Line 177:
* In the ''[[Black Market (Video Game)|Black Market]]'' universe, people can be downloaded into Soul Jars, while machine minds are relegated to Turing Jars. Pirates use this method to endlessly reincarnate; one of the main characters is a "Ghost" in this fashion.
* ''[[Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere]]'' had this with "sublimation", the act of uploading your mind inside a computer. Among other things, Ouroboros is a secret faction hell-bent on sublimating all the people in the world, and Fiona is unable to forgive her sister Cinthia after she tells Fiona she wants to sublimate her mind. (Don't panic if you don't know that: all that stuff is exclusive from the Japanese original; the American release had [[Macekre|this engaging storyline replaced]] with a generic [[AI Is a Crapshoot]] plot).
* The Doctor, a [[Playful Hacker]] of ''[[City of Heroes]]'' is revealed to be one of these, and created an easily produced process to upload personalities. Oddly enough for the genre, it didn't destroy her original mind or body; [[Mega Corp|Crey]] took care of that some time after she had already gone on the net. She's treated as a [[What Measure Is a Non
* Occurs at the end of ''[[Space Quest]] 4'', when [[Big Bad]] former-"human" AI Vohaul not only uploads Roger's son's mind to a disk (1.44mb! Who knew the mind was so... compressable?), but then uploads his own mind to Roger's son. Roger then has to defeat Vohaul by putting his son's mind back in place, and transferring Vohaul's mind to the computer just seconds before a system format.
* In ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak 3]]'', Vin ({{spoiler|who had died in the previous game}}) is discovered to have uploaded his mind into a computer. This is treated as if he were the same person {{spoiler|and had never died at all}}.
Line 183:
* ''[[Tron Two Point Oh (Video Game)|Tron 2.0]]'', the video game sequel to the cult sci-fi Disney flick ''[[Tron (Film)|Tron]]'', featured Ma3a, an artificially intelligent construct and vector for the digitization correction algorithms who was modeled after the original movie's Lora Baines, player character Jet Bradley's mother. It is hinted however that Ma3a actually has part of Lora's consciousness integrated into her program (said part having been digitized during the digitization laser accident that claimed Lora's life).
* Orthopox from ''[[Destroy All Humans]]'' does this when {{spoiler|he gets destroyed with the mothership during a nuclear attack staged by the KGB.}}
* The opening cinematic of ''[[Cortex Command]]'' shows a person's mind being uploaded into a [[
* ''[[Starship Titanic]]'': all the robots on board have these have copied human minds courtesy of 'personality transfers'. It's like blood donation in America, which means you get lots of people who really shouldn't be donating.
* In ''[[Defense Grid the Awakening]]'', the general who won the war against the aliens 1000 years ago had his brain uploaded in case they came back, which they have. He usually plays the part of the [[Exposition Fairy]], but he can't seem to get raspberries off his mind.
Line 246:
[[Category:Transhuman]]
[[Category:Brain Uploading]]
[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
| |||