This is 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.