Michio Kaku: Could We Transport Our Consciousness Into Robots? | Big Think

Michio Kaku: Could We Transport Our Consciousness Into Robots?
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Today, Dr. Kaku addresses a question posed by Robin de Roover: Is consciousness imprinted in the brain, and will it be possible to transfer that via teleportation?
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Michio Kaku:

Dr. Michio Kaku is the co-founder of string field theory, and is one of the most widely recognized scientists in the world today. He has written 4 New York Times Best Sellers, is the science correspondent for CBS This Morning and has hosted numerous science specials for BBC-TV, the Discovery/Science Channel. His radio show broadcasts to 100 radio stations every week. Dr. Kaku holds the Henry Semat Chair and Professorship in theoretical physics at the City College of New York (CUNY), where he has taught for over 25 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study as well as New York University (NYU).
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[DEDAT]

I love Michio Kaku for this fact alone: When he doesn't know something, he says he doesn't know. He doesn't jerk people around and act like he knows everything.

[rafaelfreitas]

The fact that we know so little about consciousness is amazing, we don't know if it is produced by the brain or it exists without the body but interacts with it.

[sabotsabotskij]

I just love how Michio Kaku speaks! With the curiosity of a child and he's never afraid to consider an idea, even it's something taken straight out of Star Trek... And it's never just a straight up "no" - he explains what we do know, what that means and what it might lead to in the future. Just incredible imo.

[Keodo]

Topics like these just makes me sad that wasn't born a few decades later :(

[camfg]

I hope I will live long enough to see this day. It will cost a lot to do this but I have been saving and investing for it since I was a kid, because since then the most important goal of my life has been to become immortal. I don't accept death. Period.

[justinolson]

I believe that our memories could be duplicated but the conciseness is lost with the brain/body. The only way to live forever would be to synthesize our brains or imbed it with a material that would promote the structure and health of the organ.

[jonathansmith]

I love Michio Kaku so much. Sometimes I feel like he's me if I were insanely intelligent and much asian... He seems to see the world the same way I do and it's very satisfying to hear him talk

[ryry]

I've always had the same question about the transporters on Star Trek. You're broken down into trillions of molecules, converted to energy, transmitted, then reassembled somewhere else. I always wondered if a person could actually remain conscious during transport, and if the transported version of them is really them, or an exact duplicate.

[HargyB]

You are your mind. Your mind makes you who you are. If you are worried about the loss of your physical self during the transferral well you can have your robot vessel made to look exactly like you. Wherever your mind goes, you go.

[xGoodOldSmurfehx]

just imagine the feeling of "waking up" and seeing your old organic body lying next to you ( O_O)

i dunno if id feel scared or alien for a minute

[HereWeGoo]

I love the way he explores ideas that are fantastical, spiritual, and cosmic, and then roots them in real-life, modern science and scientific endeavors. I wonder, though, if science really will ever be able to answer the biggest questions, like "What is Consciousness, and does it continue on after death?"

[redline]

I've heard of a game called SOMA in which the same thing happens. They see themselves as their original body, but in reality they are human minds copied onto robots. And if so, you probably would be the same person, but just dead for a split second and then alive again after the transfer. I would love to see the year it would become possible.

[CGplay]

Next step in technology: I gonna be a robot when i grow up.

[EEpErYang]

In computer, you can perfectly "move" data from one media to another, but the process is actually about making a copy and deleting the original.

So even if science can fully recreate the structure to support consciousness, most logically it's just a copy, not a transfer. As in "the 6th day", 2 instances of Schwarzenegger coexist without sharing a single consciousness, clearly.

[sallevoznick]

People like existing and I'm one of them. Nuff said.

[DrReginaldFinleySr]

"What will live forever?" Exactly.

[lorettalynndavis]

*This has already been done.* Granted, it is no where near perfected,
but it is much more advanced than Dr. Kaku let's on. Transferring consciousness is a very tedious process
and is done in steps. The live subject is in R.E.M. sleep, then this is able to be done in a clone of matching size,
weight, and mass of the subject. Looking on the deep web I have discovered that this is in fact being done and people
who have been cloned have undergone this procedure telling of "dreams" they've had, memories that seemed real,
even cuts and bruises or headaches and other trauma done to their clone, yet felt by them in some way shape or form.
The clones are able with human receptors to "feel" everything that the subject would otherwise feel and vise versa just not
directly, yet they are now connected. Going through the motions together, feeling pain, feeling fear, etc; the Scientist is able
to synchronize the subjects brain waves, hypo campus, and receptors to their own clone causing simultaneous feelings, emotions, and fears, to be felt by both the human subject and their clone. This is happening, it is being done. Almost all your celebrities, (especially this generation) along with important Political figures, as well as others in High places. Internationally, both foreign and domestic these people have their own clone. This exercises great control over the subject once they are in REM sleep. If you have someone's clone, you can literally control the subject from the other side of the world if need be! You can cause their deaths, make them remember things that never happened, basically render them insane if you are in possession of their clone. It is the latest blackmail technique used by people in Power to keep their slaves in line... No more science fiction folks, this shit is real!

[roberttaylor]

Is not consciousness ones awareness of their own existence? So the question is can we take our awareness of self and insert it into a 'robot'? Interesting question and discussion. I do have to say I love Michio and how he thinks and explains things so basically anyone can understand.

[Bryanmondragon]

I will spend my whole life solving the mystery of immortality.

[roryp]

Live forever you say?
"Moisturise me, moisturise me!"