Immortality test
Encyclopedia
The Immortality test is a variation of the Turing test
. It tests to see if the essential data element
s of a person could be extracted and restored into a recreation of the original person. The extraction would be performed using advanced brain and body scanning systems and then restored into a computer system that would be able to emulate all the memories and behaviors of the original person. When the fidelity of the restored person is of a high-enough degree so that another person that was intimately familiar with the original scanned person could not distinguish the original from the restored person the immortality test would be considered passed.
about his 1957 book "Dialogi" (Polish Press Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków): "I demonstrated that even if we had a complete atomic blueprint of a human organism and a device capable of reconstructing tissues from atoms, we would not be able to achieve a resurrection. I myself did not understand this outcome, but after half a century I realize that this is so because logic we use is not the same on the quantum level and one cannot go freely from one to the other. I also brought up the subject of full transfer of information from a living brain into a computer-type device. I also dared to present a conjecture whether it would be possible to achieve a direct connection between two brains. Much later I tried to be more careful in prognosis of what is feasible."
One reference to high-resolution brain scans that could recreate a person's full personality including memories was made by Ray Kurzweil in his book The Age of Spiritual Machines
The concept of restoring human memories into androids was the topic of movies such as Blade Runner
which was based loosely on Philip K. Dick
's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
,
The topic was also raised extensively in the book Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer
.
The Sci-Fi series Caprica included the concept of an algorithm that could gather information about an individual from sources such as the Internet, and construct with them an intellectually indistinguishable virtual copy of that individual.
The 2006 film The Prestige
directly raises questions about the results of creating identical copies of a human being.
Turing test
The Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
. It tests to see if the essential data element
Data element
In metadata, the term data element is an atomic unit of data that has precise meaning or precise semantics. A data element has:# An identification such as a data element name# A clear data element definition# One or more representation terms...
s of a person could be extracted and restored into a recreation of the original person. The extraction would be performed using advanced brain and body scanning systems and then restored into a computer system that would be able to emulate all the memories and behaviors of the original person. When the fidelity of the restored person is of a high-enough degree so that another person that was intimately familiar with the original scanned person could not distinguish the original from the restored person the immortality test would be considered passed.
Media references to Immortality test
Stanislaw LemStanislaw Lem
Stanisław Lem was a Polish writer of science fiction, philosophy and satire. He was named a Knight of the Order of the White Eagle. His books have been translated into 41 languages and have sold over 27 million copies. He is perhaps best known as the author of the 1961 novel Solaris, which has...
about his 1957 book "Dialogi" (Polish Press Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków): "I demonstrated that even if we had a complete atomic blueprint of a human organism and a device capable of reconstructing tissues from atoms, we would not be able to achieve a resurrection. I myself did not understand this outcome, but after half a century I realize that this is so because logic we use is not the same on the quantum level and one cannot go freely from one to the other. I also brought up the subject of full transfer of information from a living brain into a computer-type device. I also dared to present a conjecture whether it would be possible to achieve a direct connection between two brains. Much later I tried to be more careful in prognosis of what is feasible."
One reference to high-resolution brain scans that could recreate a person's full personality including memories was made by Ray Kurzweil in his book The Age of Spiritual Machines
The Age of Spiritual Machines
The Age of Spiritual Machines is a book by futurist Ray Kurzweil about the future course of humanity, particularly relating to the development of artificial intelligence and its impact on human consciousness...
The concept of restoring human memories into androids was the topic of movies such as Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
which was based loosely on Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...
's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick first published in 1968. The main plot follows Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter of androids, while the secondary plot follows John Isidore, a man of sub-normal intelligence who befriends some of the...
,
The topic was also raised extensively in the book Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
.
The Sci-Fi series Caprica included the concept of an algorithm that could gather information about an individual from sources such as the Internet, and construct with them an intellectually indistinguishable virtual copy of that individual.
The 2006 film The Prestige
The Prestige (film)
The Prestige is a 2006 mystery thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, with a screenplay adapted from Christopher Priest's 1995 novel of the same name. The story follows Robert Angier and Alfred Borden, rival stage magicians in London at the end of the 19th century...
directly raises questions about the results of creating identical copies of a human being.
See also
- Turing testTuring testThe Turing test is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour. In Turing's original illustrative example, a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with a human and a machine designed to generate performance indistinguishable from that of a human being. All...
- ImmortalityImmortalityImmortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
- Excerpt from Lem's "Dialogs"http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/dziela/dialogi/dialogi.htm