Virtually Human: The Promise-and the Peril-of Digital Immortality
(eBook)

Grouping Information

Book Cover Information

Hoopla Extract Information

stdClass Object
(
    [year] => 2014
    [artist] => Martine Rothblatt, Ph. D.
    [fiction] => 
    [coverImageUrl] => https://cover.hoopladigital.com/mcm_9781466847040_270.jpeg
    [titleId] => 13997678
    [isbn] => 9781466847040
    [abridged] => 
    [language] => ENGLISH
    [profanity] => 
    [title] => Virtually Human
    [demo] => 
    [segments] => Array
        (
        )

    [pages] => 368
    [children] => 
    [artists] => Array
        (
            [0] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Martine Rothblatt, Ph. D.
                    [artistFormal] => Rothblatt, Ph. D., Martine
                    [relationship] => AUTHOR
                )

            [1] => stdClass Object
                (
                    [name] => Ralph Steadman
                    [artistFormal] => Steadman, Ralph
                    [relationship] => ILLUSTRATOR
                )

        )

    [genres] => Array
        (
            [0] => Artificial Intelligence
            [1] => Computers
            [2] => Philosophy & Social Aspects
            [3] => Science
        )

    [price] => 1.2
    [id] => 13997678
    [edited] => 
    [kind] => EBOOK
    [active] => 1
    [upc] => 
    [synopsis] => Virtually Human explores what the not-too-distant future will look like when cyber-consciousness-simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology-allows our consciousness to be present forever.

Meet Bina48, the world's most sentient robot, commissioned by Martine Rothblatt and created by Hanson Robotics. Bina48 is a nascent Mindclone of Martine's wife that can engage in conversation, answer questions, and even have spontaneous thoughts that are derived from multimedia data in a Mindfile created by the real Bina. If you're active on Twitter or Facebook, share photos through Instagram, or blogging regularly, you're already on your way to creating a Mindfile- a digital database of your thoughts, memories, feelings, and opinions that is essentially a back-up copy of your mind. Soon, this Mindfile can be made conscious with special software- Mindware- that mimics the way human brains organize information, create emotions and achieve self-awareness.

This may sound like science-fiction A.I. (artificial intelligence), but the nascent technology already exists. Thousands of software engineers across the globe are working to create cyber-consciousness based on human consciousness and the Obama administration recently announced plans to invest in a decade-long Brain Activity Map project. Virtually Human is the only book to examine the ethical issues relating to cyber-consciousness and Rothblatt, with a Ph.D. in medical ethics, is uniquely qualified to lead the dialogue.
    [url] => https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/13997678
    [pa] => 
    [subtitle] => The Promise-and the Peril-of Digital Immortality
    [publisher] => St. Martin's Publishing Group
    [purchaseModel] => INSTANT
)