Aspects of Mind Uploading

Book chapter, 2021

Mind uploading is the hypothetical future technology of transferring human minds to computer hardware using whole-brain emulation. After a brief review of the technological prospects for mind uploading, a range of philosophical and ethical aspects of the technology are reviewed. These include questions about whether uploads will have consciousness and whether uploading will preserve personal identity, as well as what impact on society a working uploading technology is likely to have and whether these impacts are desirable. The issue of whether we ought to move forward towards uploading technology remains as unclear as ever.