News
News Categories

This startup wants to upload your consciousness, but with one very small catch

By James Lu - on 14 Mar 2018, 11:40am

This startup wants to upload your consciousness, but with one very small catch

Netflix's Altered Carbon

The idea of uploading your consciousness to the Internet or a new body has been a staple of science fiction for decades (most recently seen in Netflix's Altered Carbon) but a new startup co-founded by MIT graduates may finally be making that dream a reality. 

The startup, Nectome, says it has found a way to chemically preserve human brains well enough to keep all memories intact, so that they can eventually be uploaded to a computer (once that technology becomes available).

Nectome has received US$1 million in funding, including a US$960,000 federal grant from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health for “whole-brain nanoscale preservation and imaging. It is currently accepting US$10,000 deposits to join the waiting list. So far, 25 people have signed up.

“Our mission is to preserve your brain well enough to keep all its memories intact: from that great chapter of your favorite book to the feeling of cold winter air, baking an apple pie, or having dinner with your friends and family,” the company writes. “We believe that within the current century it will be feasible to digitize this information and use it to re-create your consciousness.”

There is, however, one small catch: Nectome says the service is “100 percent fatal.” In other words, you will be killed by Nectome’s brain-preservation system. And you can't just wait till you die first. According to Nectome, the “high-tech embalming process”, called vitrifixation, also known as aldehyde-stabilized cryopreservation, requires your brain to be as "fresh" as possible.

Currently, the plan is for people with terminal illnesses to be hooked up to a heart-lung machine while Nectome pumps “its mix of scientific embalming chemicals” into their necks, allowing them to be kept alive “for hundreds of years, maybe thousands, as a statue of frozen glass.”

Source: MIT Technology Review

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.