In 1959, Robert Sheckley published an interesting novel called “Immortality, Inc”. It was adapted into a movie called “Freejack” in 1992.
At the core of this novel is a technology that allows humans to fully digitize their brains so that their minds can become immortal. The process of the scan is done while the human is fully conscious, so they can confirm whether the scan is correct. This transfer is done layer by layer, effectively destroying the original organic brain.
There is a startup called Nectome that is working on making this technology a reality, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has already signed up for having his entire brain scanned and digitized as soon as that technology becomes available.
Just as in the novel, digital immortality is in reach for those who can afford it.
Now just think about this for a second:
Maybe that’s the real reason why they’re throwing so much money at those AI data centers.
Maybe it’s not really about large language models, maybe it’s about having enough capacity to host the digitized minds of the financial aristocracy.
