Virtually Human: The Promise―and the Peril―of Digital Immortality

A groundbreaking and compelling book that gives readers an in-depth understanding of the most thought-provoking and important technological innovation of the twenty-first century Every day, social media is automatically uploading our thoughts, memories, preferences, beliefs, and history to a virtual existence, essentially creating a "mindfile" of ourselves. Thousands of software engineers across the globe are working on "mindware" to create from these mindfile personalities and humanlike consciousness in computer software, or cyberconsciousness. In the next decade or two, these efforts will result in the first digital copies of our identities, which will be our "mindclones." In Virtually Human, Martine Rothblatt shares her insights into how cyberconsciousness will manifest in our lives, and what we need to consider when a new, high-tech population of mindclones awakens to the rights, privileges, and obligations humans take for granted. Virtually Human conveys a profound understanding of how close we are to achieving a full simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology in clear, positive language, and raises numerous ethical and moral questions we absolutely need to address now, before the technology becomes commercially viable and accessible to all of us. Virtually Human will be the essential companion book to the future of mankind.