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In the film Transcendence, Johnny Depp’s character is murdered and in a bid to keep him alive, his team of researchers uploads his consciousness to a quantum computer, only for him to connect himself to the internet and try to take over the world.
While the film itself wasn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, the concept of being able to live forever by uploading your consciousness to a computer has often been talked about as a potential outcome of humanity in a possible Utopian vision where we all live in harmony online.
However, while Hollywood and science fiction are quick to draw un-realistic scenarios, what if the idea was made into reality by drawing on the worst aspects in a commercial digital dystopia?
What if corporations and lawyers got their hands on the concept and turned your digital life into a hellish commercial existence?
One person who did that was Tom Scott with his frighteningly-real video about the Life Network, where in the future, everyone is uploaded to once they die.
Avatar online image via Shutterstock
