[Inside Chodong]People Dreaming of Immortality Through AI

Recently, Neuralink, a neurotechnology company led by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct experiments implanting electronic chips into the human brain, sparking international controversy. This is due to concerns that the experiments could potentially become dangerous.

[Image source=Neuralink]

The research field of companies studying brain chip implantation technology, including Neuralink, is referred to as ‘Mind Uploading.’ It is a collective term for technology that converts all personal experiences and knowledge stored within neurons, the information storage units in the brain, into machine language to be implanted into a computer, and conversely, to insert necessary information back into the brain.

On the surface, it is truly a dream technology. If this technology is perfectly successful, students worldwide could instantly acquire knowledge in subjects like mathematics and foreign languages that currently trouble them. Additionally, rehabilitation for patients suffering physical pain due to spinal or neural damage from traffic accidents would become much easier.

However, the mindset of the global wealthy who are funding this technology development lies elsewhere. Eve Herold, a science writer who authored the 2020 book Beyond Human, points out that the ultimate goal of mind uploading technology is the realization of ‘immortality.’ Once this technology is perfected, it could enable a world where no one ever dies by continuously transferring the brain information converted into computer programs into new bodies.

The 2018 American sci-fi drama Altered Carbon depicts such a future society where no one dies. Humans can transplant their souls through a device attached to the back of their necks, and as long as this device is not destroyed, souls can be transferred to new bodies, allowing people to be resurrected at any time. Therefore, even if a person is killed, as long as a new body is provided, murder charges do not apply.

The foundational technology for the emergence of such a future society is ‘Artificial Intelligence (AI).’ To implant neuron information into a computer, the computer must first become as intelligent as the human brain with a comparable number of parameters. The number of synapses, which serve as parameters from a human perspective, is about 100 trillion. AI parameters, which have now surpassed the trillion level, are expected to approach 100 trillion by the 2030s.

This technological advancement foretells a major upheaval in future society. If human lifespan extends infinitely, the issues of low birthrate and aging population will be overshadowed by the far more frightening social problems of zero births and zero deaths.

In a society where no one dies, polarization will intensify further, and the state’s ability to control the deviance of those with strong capital or power will weaken. There is also a risk that current political systems, laws, and institutions will become completely ineffective. South Korean society, which has yet to properly resolve the anomie phenomenon caused by rapid industrialization, faces the question of whether it can safely embrace this new world.