Ray Kurzweil and Uploading: Just Say No!

There is a debate about the possibility of mind-uploading – a process that purportedly transfers human minds and therefore human identities into computers. This paper bypasses the debate about the metaphysics of mind-uploading to address the rationality of submitting yourself to it. I argue that an ineliminable risk that mind-uploading will fail makes it prudentially irrational for humans to undergo it. For Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence (AI) is not just about making artificial things intelligent; it’s also about making humans artificially super-intelligent. In his version of our future we enhance our mental powers by means of increasingly powerful electronic neuroprostheses. The recognition that any function performed by neurons and synapses can be done better by electronic chips will lead to an ongoing conversion of biological brain into machine mind. We will upload. Once the transfer of our identities into machines is complete, we will be free to follow the trajectory of accelerating improvement currently tracked by wireless Internet routers and portable DVD players. We will quickly become millions and billions of times more intelligent than we currently are. This paper challenges Kurzweil’s predictions about the destiny of the human mind. I argue that it is unlikely ever to be rational for human beings to completely upload their minds onto computers – a fact that is almost certain to be understood by those presented with the option of doing so. Although we’re likely to find it desirable to replace peripheral parts of our minds – parts dedicated to the processing of visual information, for example – we’ll want to stop well before going all the way. A justified fear of uploading will make it irrational to accept offers to replace the parts of our brains responsible for thought processes that we consider essential to our conscious experience, even if the replacements manifestly outperform neurons. This rational biological conservatism will set limits on how intelligent we can become.