According to researchers, a new quantum material brings us one step closer to mind uploading

Last week, I was invited to share some reflections on the Masterclass taught by futurist Jason Silva on the Oli platform by Aerolito. Among the topics Silva brought up was the question of transhumanism and the possibility of becoming "heroes" in virtual reality. This idea was especially popular throughout the late 1980s and the 90s, when so-called techno-optimists believed we could become "angels" in cyberspace—as described by Margaret Wertheim in her book The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace (2001).

One of the main premises of science fiction and transhumanism at that time was the possibility of transferring the human mind to a machine, a concept especially explored by neuroscientist Hans Moravec in his book Mind Children. Since then, new projects like the 2045 Initiative, Carbon Copies, or even the mindfiles of Martine Rothblatt have aimed at the possibility of transforming our thoughts and memories into information to be stored in electronic devices or, as is now being speculated, in quantum devices.

Last month, researchers at Purdue University and Argonne National Laboratory discovered the possibility of using a quantum material as a way to better translate and understand brain processes. According to the study published in Nature Communications, unlike an electronic device, which functions based on electrons, the brain functions based on ions. Now, regarding quantum material compared to electronic material, in the case of the former, its properties cannot be explained by classical physics, which makes them special compared to other better-known electronic materials, such as silicon, for example.

The first tests already carried out by the researchers involved two molecules: glucose (a sugar essential for energy production) and dopamine (a chemical messenger that regulates movement, emotional responses, and memory). Since dopamine is present in low amounts in the brain, and even less so in the case of Parkinson's patients, the detection of this substance is particularly difficult. However, the sooner dopamine levels are detected, the more promising the treatment for the disease. "This quantum material is about nine times more sensitive to dopamine than the methods we use today in animal models," said Alexander Chubykin, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience.

Another advantage discovered in these tests was that this material did not require a power source to function, thus operating with low demand, which means it could even be used in unexplored environments. Further ahead is the possibility of using this same premise to store and transfer memories and thoughts from the brain. "Imagine putting an electronic device in the brain, so that when the brain's natural functions begin to deteriorate, a person could still recover their memories through this device," argued Shriram Ramanathan, a professor of materials engineering at Purdue.

This brings us, therefore, to discussions like the one Martine Rothblatt had with Ray Kurzweil in an interview available on YouTube. As Rothblatt works on the development of so-called mindfiles—that is, programs capable of emulating a person's behavior and functioning, ultimately, as a virtual substitute—Kurzweil questions whether a machine capable of emulating a still-living person wouldn't just be an artificial intelligence different from the individual themselves. Rothblatt says yes, but that her idea of life extension through cybernetic technologies is more focused on a progressive process of transforming the biological human body into a new cybernetic state.

How this would happen, however, is something that has been explored, for example, in the 2045 Initiative, which proposes, in the first instance, controlling robotic bodies through brain-machine interfaces and, later, transferring the human brain to a robotic body. However, there are different voices in neuroscience that contradict the hypothesis that the "Self" is concentrated only in the brain —or, even, that a "Self" even exists or perhaps that "Self." Even more controversial and complex is the hypothesis of psychiatrist Dan Siegel, as argued in his book Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, that the "Self" is neither in the brain nor in the body, but that our mind is "an emergent self-organizing process, both embodied and relational, that regulates the flow of energy and information within and among us."

As Hararisaid, we still have to solve this little problem of consciousness, but after that, we will have a true ontological shift—a title I gave to a science fiction short story published in the collection 2084: Cyberpunk Worlds (available in e-bookandprint), in which I explore, through speculation, what this new humanity would be like after we discover what consciousness is, and in doing so, better understand robotic existence and its desire for a corporeal experience—that is, hardware for its software.