Science Fiction's Uploaded Consciousness Trope, Explained
We've all agreed that death is scary, and we'd like to avoid it wherever possible. Mankind hasn't and probably won't ever find a solution, but there are a few cheap methods of immortality that science fiction writers love to consider.
Immortality is a subject of fiction well beyond the boundaries of any particular genre, but sci-fi has its unique methods of ducking the reaper. One of the most common and most interesting solutions for the issue of entropy is the hotly anticipated ability to upload one's living consciousness to a highly advanced piece of technology. This concept has a rich history and several fascinating permutations across the science fiction medium.
Amazon's Upload Renewed For A Third Season
The old uploading one's brain to a computer to escape the nightmarish fate of the human body trick seems like a no-brainer. The effects of age are almost exclusively negative, and even the most pleasant death is packed with mystery and fear. This trope suggests the possibility of hooking up the failing body to a bunch of massive computer banks and somehow transferring the perceptual reality of the person into a machine. This is, as far as we know, impossible. Consciousness is a function of the brain which can't just be transferred from its mortal casing. This is similar, but not identical to circumstances like The Matrix, in which a person is allowed to inhabit a computerized life simulation while their brain remains in their body. This isn't a full upload of consciousness, it's just state-of-the-art virtual reality.
Other works involve building an artificial intelligence that perfectly mirrors the intelligence, memories, and personality of a once-living person. This too isn't quite the full brain upload, but it is
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