Mind uploading in fiction

Mind uploading—transferring an individual's personality to a computer—appears in several works of fiction.^[1] It is distinct from the concept of transferring a consciousness from one human body to another.^[2][3] It is sometimes applied to a single person and other times to an entire society.^[4] Recurring themes in these stories include whether the computerized mind is truly conscious, and if so, whether identity is preserved.^[5] It is a common feature of the cyberpunk subgenre,^[6] sometimes taking the form of digital immortality.^[3][7]

See also

• Body swap
• Brain transplant § In science fiction

References

1. Langford, David; Stableford, Brian (2022). "Upload". In Clute, John; Langford, David; Sleight, Graham (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (4th ed.). Retrieved 2024-03-29.
2. Webb, Stephen (2017). "Mind Uploading". All the Wonder that Would Be: Exploring Past Notions of the Future. Science and Fiction. Springer. pp. 276–278. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51759-9_10. ISBN 978-3-319-51759-9.
3. • Fischer, John Martin; Curl, Ruth (1996). "Philosophical Models of Immortality in Science Fiction". In Slusser, George; Westfahl, Gary; Rabkin, Eric S. (eds.). Immortal Engines: Life Extension and Immortality in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. pp. 3–12. ISBN 0-8203-1733-0. OCLC 34319944.
   • Fischer, John Martin; Curl, Ruth (2009). "Appendix to Chapter 6: Philosophical Models of Immortality in Science Fiction". In Fischer, John Martin (ed.). Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will. Oxford University Press. pp. 93–101. ISBN 978-0-19-537495-7.
4. Langford, David (2005). "Computers". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.
5. Blackford, Russell (2017). "Reshaping the Human". Science Fiction and the Moral Imagination: Visions, Minds, Ethics. Science and Fiction. Springer. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-3-319-61685-8.
6. Booker, M. Keith (2014). "Artificial Intelligence (AI)". Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction in Literature. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8108-7884-6. Cyberpunk writers and their successors have also frequently imagined the uploading of human minds into computers, thus creating a special sort of artificial intelligence that can free individuals of the limitations of biological bodies, a notion that would be notably extended in the work of Greg Egan.
7. Westfahl, Gary (2005). "Immortality and Longevity". In Westfahl, Gary (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 418–420. ISBN 978-0-313-32951-7.

Further reading

• Geraci, Robert M. (2010). "Science Fiction Sacred". Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality. Oxford University Press. pp. 54–56. ISBN 978-0-19-974133-5.
• Lorrimar, Victoria (2022). "Imagining Prospective Technologies". Human Technological Enhancement and Theological Anthropology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–38. ISBN 978-1-316-51502-0.