Mind-Reading Machines, Identity, and the Everlasting Life of the Soul

Here are some futuristic reflections I made.

There are ongoing efforts to develop technologies to ”read” a person’s mind. These advancements have practical applications, such as creating aids for physically impaired individuals to move, speak, and perform other tasks. One notable development comes from the University of Austin, where researchers are using MRI scanning machines combined with AI to decode thoughts. Currently, they can only grasp a crude idea of a thought’s gist.

For the purpose of philosophical discussion, I want to extrapolate forward in technological development.

It is conceivable that, at some point, it will be possible to scan all the thoughts and memories of a person and download them into a computer system. Furthermore, recent developments in AI have shown that AI systems can mimic the style and characteristics of a writer when generating texts. I envision that it will eventually be possible to determine the brain’s thinking structure such that, given a present state, an AI system could estimate what the next thought would be.

With this capability, it should be possible to create a full copy of a person’s soul into a computer system. By ”soul,” I mean a person’s entire inner thoughts, memories, and experiences. Furthermore, an AI system could generate new thoughts for this digital copy of a soul.

We would then have created an identical twin soul, not physically residing inside the skull of a biological person, but in a computer. This digital twin would share a common past with its biological counterpart but will have a divergent future.

Who of these twins can make a claim to be a person, especially in relation to others? For example, if a person has a spouse, family, and friends, does the digital twin have a right to a relationship with these people? Perhaps the digital twin is more pleasant to these people. Would that matter?

Additionally, a soul residing in a computer system is not constrained by the realities of biological life. Every biological organism eventually dies. That need not be the case for a soul resident in electronics. It can be transferred without loss to a new computer system when the physical hardware becomes outdated.

Perhaps there will be a business opportunity to offer everlasting life for people’s souls.

(Written 2024)