The Digital Hereafter, or: Nirvana in the Cloud

Abstract

In the discussion of posthuman encounters, the focus is predominantly on robotics and the cyborg, artificial intelligence, and the
implementation of technological elements into the human body. Less often explored is the complementary vision of the uploaded
mind as a promise of life extension or even immortality. Nevertheless, there is, by now, quite a body of conceptual explorations,
promises, warnings and also popularizations of this idea. The technological options described range from memory transfer to whole
brain emulation or simulation, and they raise a multitude of theoretical, technological, philosophical and ethical concerns.
Unsurprisingly, the assessment varies from enthusiastic celebration to dystopian nightmares, and the concepts have also been
explored controversially in literary works. In my paper I outline the most important arguments and discuss some works of science
fiction which explore visions of uploaded minds, most importantly Greg Evans’s Permutation City, Amitav Ghosh’s The Calcutta
Chromosome, and Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein.