Is human virtualisation worthwhile?

I have been mulling over this question for a couple of days now – it’s a bit of a meatier topic than usual so this post will be a bit longer.  The IT industry has harnessed significant benefits from virtualisation of servers in recent years.   It’s a reasonable question to consider whether human virtualisation would be a worthwhile activity.

Firstly it probably makes sense to define what I mean by virualisation.  For me it would be a 3 step process:

1                     Storing information about you

2                     Delivering that information in various forms

3                     Merging, developing and simulating in different ways

There seems to be relatively little discussion of this topic available at present.  If anyone can send me links to some more discussions on this that would be great.  We will examine each step in a bit of detail.

Storing information about you

 Step 1 is probably the simplest and most clearly defined.  Ray Kurzweil suggests that we only have around 18 more years before nanobots and the like may be able to complete step 1 for us.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1322218/Humans-able-brain-decades-claims-scientist.html  However not everyone may be able to wait for that to happen and there is no obvious reason not to start now.

There are more low tech guides on how to do this eg http://www.wikihow.com/Back-Up-Your-Memories-and-Ideas.   However this may seem like rather a lot of effort.  I am thinking of some more middle ground where there is an on-line service providing some sort of structure into which you record:

1                     Your detailed bio-graphical data and curriculum vitae

2                     Your vision, values and beliefs

3                     Your likes and dislikes

4                     Your abilities and disabilities

Current technology is clearly more than capable of providing this sort of capability and some photographs and video footage could easily be added on.  Participation in the sort of networked decision making system that is I have outlined would also be extremely useful in recording users opinions on key issues and could provide an ongoing source of data about people’s opinions.

Delivering that information

Step two is clearly the key point – why are you doing this.  While there is a risk that this becomes  something of an ego-building process and is about as beneficial to society as a circle-jerk I am coming round to the view that this really isn’t the case.  Perhaps the initial and obvious reason for recording some details about you is so that future generations of your family can see and understand what you were like.   Many families have family trees and much pleasure is gained from tracing those back through time.   If future generations could actually see and understand some of what made you tick then I think that would be appreciated.  Most western civilisations are trying to saddle future generations with a significant burden of sovereign debt – this would at least provide something they might enjoy to go along with it.  Perhaps those poiticians most responsible for the build-up of debt might even be able to explain why even though we understood that the perpetual motion machine was impossible we thought that perpetual borrowing would work out OK. 

While this may be the simplest and most obvious reason to back yourself up it is probably not the most beneficial.  If you can assess your own skills, abilities, vision and values then so can your friends and colleagues and if this data gathering exercise was extended to them then you could quickly learn where there were differences between your perception of yourself and other peoplesSo personal development and review seems to be a valid and worthwhile reason to record and commit to storage some details of who you are.  Undoubtedly people will probably choose to apply a little bit of ‘air-brushing’ to their lives – however this may actually provide a catalyst for real positive change as people strive to become more like the person they want to be.  Obviously most of you are not like Alfred Nobel and don’t get the chance to read your own obituary, so some earlier feedback on how people think you are is likely to be helpful in allowing you to ensure an accurate and desirable record of your life and achievements has been recorded.

Merging, developing and simulating 

There are three rather more interesting reasons why this sort of backup may be worthwhile and these are as follows:

1                     It should allow a virtual model of you to be created and take actions when you’re not there

2                     It should be relatively simple to merge models and create a single model from a group of individuals

3                     Using both 1 and 2 it should be possible to run simulations of various events and see if your virtual person behaves the same way you do

You are obviously getting ever closer to passing the Turing test and once you can simulate a general human then it is only a question of tweaking the variables to simulate a specific human – obviously collecting some data on the variables is a required step to do that.  At present it is a little like human cryonics industry where you don’t know how to bring the data back to life at present.   However I expect that virtual people will become re-animated a good deal sooner than the frozen ones.  The costs of data storage are also reaching the point that this is quite viable for much of humanity whereas storing all your corpses in liquid nitrogen represents isn’t really practical when there are so many other problems to address among  the living..

Many parents would I think like the idea that they could provide some ‘virtual assistance’ to their children as they grow up and potentially having virtualised versions of great leaders and experts in their field could be quite transformational to human progress.

However most individuals have at least a few rough edges and the potential to merge different individuals into a composite which represents the views and values of a particular group is also potentially extremely powerful.  This could support the creation of virtual leaders and also greatly simplify group negotiations if two groups could be summarised into their overall position and then identify areas of agreement and disagreement.
The storage of individuals vision and values would also allow for simulation of events and developments to take place and outcomes to be predicted.  This could help identify the best course of actions for both self-development and conflict resolution.  The benefits are potentially enormous.

So I think overall there are good and valid reasons for developing a human backup system to help human progress.  However for those of you that are rational and consequently atheist then at present you probably believe that you can only really live on after your death in the hearts and minds of those that knew you.  A good backup system would also allow future generations not yet born to get to know a bit more about what you were like.   It may also be helpful to pass your wisdom on to future generations.  Children don’t always listen to their parents but if five generations of their ancestors are all telling them the same thing then they may take a little more heed.  I’m not sure there is anything wrong with wanting to be able to do this.  Furthermore it looks like virtualising yourself could be a great deal of fun and the earlier you start doing it the more time you’d have left to improve the model.  Yes there’s some risk that we end up spending all our time preening our virtual self, but a little bit of self-review and reflection probably won’t do us any harm and hopefully our virtual self’s will start telling us where to go if we start to get self-obsessed.
Conclusion

Human backup and virtualisation is an exciting new field that technology is now making possible.  It appears to be both worthwhile and fun to start doing this and the market and potential for this service is potentially huge.   Obviously some further discussion on the merits and mechanisms of delivering this service would be required.  However virtual immortality in at least a basic form is likely to be achievable within the next decade if the demand for it is there.