Is it really possible for humans to achieve immortality on the Internet?

Through the connection of virtual network devices, we enter a real network world, and then play games and live life. Isn't it very interesting? If the consciousness stays in that place, can we achieve network immortality? I'm talking about you, Kayaba Akihiko!

Many people often see the above links in movies, TV shows and animations, which makes us wonder: Is it really possible for humans to achieve immortality on the Internet?

The answer is no! (The following nonsense begins)

The brain is more powerful than you think

The release of the first black hole photo and various smart terminals have filled people with information about the current technology. Indeed, we can't help but sigh at the progress of science and technology in the past 20 years. But I still regret to inform you that although we have taken the first steps in the exploration of the universe and have begun an unremitting exploration of science and technology and the future, humans still know very little about the cognition of the brain. The brain can be said to be the most complex "precision instrument" known. Nearly 100 billion neurons (Neuron) control our memory, emotions, cognition and other functions by transmitting neural signals to each other.

According to an article in Nature Science in March 2014, there are 13 neurons in the brain of a mouse, which can store about 1TB of data. A normal person has about 86 billion neurons (maybe I have more, being smart?), which means that the human brain can theoretically store more than 6 billion TB of information. What does this mean?

Assuming that the current SSD price is about 1 yuan per GB, then the value of our brain is as high as more than 6 trillion yuan! It turns out that healthy people are the richest. If you only sleep 4 hours a day and spend the remaining 20 hours receiving information, it is equivalent to receiving 220GB of high-definition audio and video data a day, which is about 79TB a year. If you live to 90 years old, it will only be more than 7,000TB, which is simply not enough!

Difficult to store digital information

Even if you can completely digitize brain information, you will need to prepare a solid-state drive of more than 6 billion TB, which I don’t think can fit in a truck. Moreover, it is impossible to completely digitize brain data and memory. Because people cannot yet peek into the connection between neuronal signals and functions, the only thing that can be achieved at present is a high-definition scan and digital modeling of the brain.

So if you want to fully store the functional memory and data of the human brain, it is impossible to achieve at this stage. If you must give a prediction time, then I will estimate 10,000 years. If it is realized by then, remember to notify me!

Even if aliens visit Earth one day and provide the technology for the next 10,000 years, which can completely digitize brain information, it is basically impossible to achieve this with current storage media. Because the brain is not only a storage unit for information, but also a computing unit. Just having more than 6 billion TB of storage is not enough, you need to perform high-speed calculations in it!

High-speed computing is unrivaled

Speaking of computing power, many people will say that their brains are not very good, and sometimes they can't even do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division properly, and are even worse than a calculator. If you say that, you really underestimate yourself. In fact, a simple action like greeting your neighbor includes multiple functions such as face recognition and intelligent dialogue, and you even have to use different words according to the other person's status. Face recognition alone can beat all AI technologies on the market in seconds, which shows the shortcomings of the brain.

Friends who often do video editing will encounter hardware bottlenecks when rendering and processing videos. Now close your eyes and recall the scenery you have seen before, imagine the details of the picture casually, and then imagine your favorite protagonist appearing on the screen. Congratulations, you have completed a series of tasks such as video editing and rendering in less than one second, and even modeled and simulated motion capture of the characters. Isn't it amazing? This processing speed is probably a bit inferior to the new I9 and RTX3090!

Are you a little discouraged after reading this? Does this mean that deep diving in animations and movies is completely impossible to achieve?

Virtual reality is a dream come true

That's not the case. I think virtual stealth is still possible, provided that the center of the calculation is your brain. That is to say, all the images and scenes are spontaneously generated in your brain. We know that many people have the habit of dreaming, and everything in the dream is very real, and the content of the dream is sometimes related to what you see during the day. This is in line with the old saying: "What you think about during the day, you dream at night."

When we are dreaming, even a turn over may affect the content of the dream, so in order to complete the virtual deep dive, the machine can release the corresponding electrical signal to the designated brain area, thereby causing a specific image impact on the dream. Of course, the premise for this to be realized is that humans can crack the mystery of the signal between neurons. Although it is very difficult, it is still much easier than uploading the entire consciousness.

Well, in principle, even if your consciousness can be uploaded, it is no longer the real you. From the moment it is uploaded, you are gone. The so-called your consciousness is just a copy.

Unless your brain is preserved and provided with nutrients so that you think you are still in the real world, it feels a bit like a "brain in a vat", isn't it a bit scary?