Uploading your brain will leave you exposed to software glitches

Think a digital version of your mind will allow you to live forever? It might, but it will also open you up to software manipulation and server problems, says Annalee Newitz

By Annalee Newitz

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BACK in the 20th century, “the future” meant flying cars and food pills. Now, the future is all about brain uploads.

The idea is that, one day, we will be able to convert all our memories and thoughts into hyper-advanced software programs. Once the human brain can run on a computer – or maybe even on a giant robot – we will evade death forever. Sounds cooler than a flying car, right? Wrong. If they ever exist, uploads will be hell.

Fantasies about uploaded brains are nothing new. William Gibson wrote about them some 35 years ago in his cyberpunk …