See How Brains Could Be Copied To Computers To Allow Life After Death

Could your brain keep on living even after
your body dies? Sounds like science
fiction, but celebrated theoretical physicist
Stephen Hawking recently suggested that
technology could make it possible.
“I think the brain is like a program in the
mind, which is like a computer,” Hawking
said last week during an appearance at
the Cambridge Film Festival, The
Telegraph reported. “So it’s theoretically
possible to copy the brain on to a
computer and so provide a form of life
after death.”
He acknowledged that such a feat lies
“beyond our present capabilities,” adding
that “the conventional afterlife is a fairy
tale for people afraid of the dark.”
Hawking, 71, made the remarks in
conjunction with the premiere of a new
documentary about his life.
He has spoken previously about what he
calls the “fairy story” of heaven and the
afterlife. Likening thehuman brain to a
computer whose components will fail, he
said, “There is no heaven or afterlife for
broken-down computers.”
Some people are actively working to
develop technology that would permit the
migration of brain functions into a
computer. Russian multi-millionaire
Dmitry Itskov, for one, hopes someday to
upload the contents of a brain into a
lifelike robot body as part of his 2045
Initiative, The New York Times reported
recently.
A separate research group, called the
Brain Preservation Foundation, is working
to develop a process to preserve the brain
along with its memories, emotions and
consciousness. Called chemical fixation
and plastic embedding, the process
involves converting the brain into plastic,
carving it up into tiny slices, and then
reconstructing its three-dimensional
structure in a computer.