Legacy Matters

Digital Immortality

By 2050 we would expect to be able to download your mind into a machine, so when you die it's not a major career problem,' said  Ian Pearson, one of Briain's leading futurologists to The Observer. 'If you're rich enough then by 2050 it's feasible. If you're poor you'll probably have to wait until 2075 or 2080 when it's routine.

Pearson, 44, has formed his mind-boggling vision of the future after graduating in applied mathematics and theoretical physics, spending four years working in missile design and the past 20 years working in optical networks, broadband network evolution and cybernetics in BT's laboratories. He admits his prophecies are both 'very exciting' and 'very scary'.

He believes that today's youngsters may never have to die, and points to the rapid advances in computing power demonstrated last week, when Sony released the first details of its PlayStation 3. It is 35 times more powerful than previous games consoles. 'The new PlayStation is 1 per cent as powerful as a human brain,' he said. 'It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain.'

Count me in as a big time skeptic of this chilling view of the future where the time to live and the time to die are one and the same.

Besides, I believe in editing.  I'd rather have 20 favorite photos of a loved one than 2500.  Their favorite songs, not every one they ever listened to.  Their best thoughts and wise words, not every thought and every word.

That's why I believe people should take time and create just what they want to leave to the future as their personal legacy archives.  It's not a data dump.  It's a distillation of the best of your life.

UPDATE:  It does sound like a Rapture for Nerds or as they say, the
Singularity

If you live through the SIngularity and you do not try UpLoading and are not rendered PostHumous by feral calculators or get eaten by GreyGoo, you may be one of the PostHumans. PostHumans are humans who are not human any more.