It’s a popular sci-fi trope : The human consciousness now residing in a computer, trading physical life for machine-based immortality. In The Matrix this works both ways: You can not only upload your consciousness to a vast multiplayer online world, but also instantly download digitized knowledge from the cloud to your brain (“ I know kung fu! ”). A digitized consciousness might have some acknowledged limitations, sure – you don’t eat anymore, and you can’t smell the flowers. Even that seems ridiculous by modern technology standards, though: Couldn’t we design appropriate sensors, or simply simulate those experiences? Indeed, there’s a school of thought that claims we are already living in some type of simulated reality , whether computer-generated or otherwise. Let’s confine ourselves to currently existing digital technologies, and examine the question of whether it really might be possible to upload our consciousness to the cloud. China is investing a lot in brain-computer interf...