Research
Life as we know it is changing. A constant tide of progress in technology and biomedicine continues to blur even our most well-worn distinctions between human and nonhuman. We are growing more like machines, and vice versa. Examples abound. With the rise of AI systems like ChatGPT, creativity itself is being outsourced to artificial entities. Meanwhile, mind uploading, a process that copies the biological brain and stores it in a simulation or robotic shell, is becoming feasible well ahead of the 2038 projection once volunteered by roboticist Hans Moravec. In the midst of such transformative developments, experts and laypeople alike cannot resist asking: How do we define our humanity? And what if that definition ceases to matter?