Is the Human Brain just a fleshy computer, or does it house something more complex, something that can not be replicated?

At the opening of The Schizoid Man, the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard is responding to a call to provide medical care for a reclusive but brilliant scientist, Dr. Ira Graves He lives with his assistant on a very remote planet. One of the ship’s Doctors determines that Dr. Graves has a terminal disease and has only three more weeks to live. Because his condition isn’t curable, the crew begins to collect his research in an effort to preserve his knowledge. Dr. Graves however recognizes the Enterprise’s Science Officer, Commander Data, as one of Dr. Noonien Soong’s creations, claiming he had actually taught Soong everything he knows. The revelation creates a bond between Data and Dr. Graves, and they begin spending time together alone. During this time Graves reveals that he has developed a method to transfer his consciousness to a computer, allowing him to live past his body’s expiration date. This is based on the theory of whole brain emulation or mind uploading, a hypothetical process of copying the mental content from a brain onto a digital or software based artificial neural network. Data then communicates to the Enterprise that Dr, Ira Graves has died.

Some trans-humanist groups treat mind uploading as an important proposed life extension technology, and is believed by them to be our best current option for preserving who we are. And Star Trek: The Next Generation is far from the first appearance of this type of procedure in Science Fiction, the idea might go as far back as Isaac Asimov’s 1956 short story The Last Question.

The idea seems complex, as the human brain contains 86 billion nerve cells called neurons which individually link to other neurons with connectors called axons and dendrites. Signals at the juncture of these connections, called synapses, are transmitted by the release and detection of chemicals called neurotransmitters. Importantly, the consensus of the neuroscientific community is that the human mind is largely an emergent property of the information being processed on this network and important functions performed by the mind are purely physical and electrochemical. These processes performed by the brain are governed by physical laws. This is a mechanistic view of the mind, and allows for mind uploading, as long as a similar network could be artificially created (including space and speed) and the information properly mapped. In essence replicating the hardware that makes up the brain with something more durable (or at least with a better warranty). Then migrating the data so the software can work. But is this possible?

The effect of this upload however might just be the creation of a mindless symbol manipulator instead of a consciousness that makes us human. Could there be upper limits in processing speeds required to sustain one, or are there ways and influences where the data in our brains coalesce to create this consciousness that couldn’t be mapped or replicated. The scientific feat of mapping a transfer like this precludes a definitive answer to what a conscious actually is. Some scientists believe that determining whether a separate entity is conscious is fundamentally unknowable as the idea is inherently subjective. And consequently how can we be certain all of our human motivations are mapped correctly, could some be left behind or behave differently in an unfamiliar environment of the cloud? Could the effort go horribly wrong?

In the episode, Dr. Graves does indeed download his consciousness into Data. The crew become suspicious of Data’s strange behavior and piece together what has happened. Captain Picard pleads with Graves to release Data noting the harm he is doing to his loved ones, and he does, downloading himself into the ship’s computer instead. But the crew discovers that only his knowledge made it into the ship’s computers, his consciousness, the human part of Dr. Graves’ mind has been lost and his experiment ends.

But that is where the smackdown begins! Would you download your brain in an effort to become immortal, find ways to live for a very long time and experience so much more. Or are we, in an effort to prolong life, playing with aspects of humanity that can’t be replicated outside of the human condition? Would the end result be your death with just a digital copy of your brains contents, or would you live on and simply extend your consciousness beyond your body? In the end, would you do it? And that is the subject of this month’s Smackdown! As always, you decide!