In Entropia Universe, players should be able to live forever, even when the body is long dead. The consciousness is supposed to ascend as AI in the MMO.
The developer MindArk wants to defeat death and allow players to exist forever. In the future, one should be able to upload their brain into the game to escape their own mortality. But is this a serious desire, distant science fiction, or just a PR stunt?
How realistic is this? The goals sound lofty, and it is particularly unlikely that these plans will be implemented in the coming years. Science is not advanced enough in brain research to be able to “read out” data such as memories or personality traits from the brain.
MindArk wants to be a pioneer: In an interview with Business Wire, the developers of MindArk, the studio behind the MMO Entropia Universe, stated that they are working on ways to achieve immortality in games. They are intensively following the work of researchers to eventually be able to upload and store a person’s “consciousness.” Then it would be possible to encounter a person in a game even after their death.
It goes on:
“Everyone dreams of an afterlife, and our team uses the research of leading scientists around the world to take first steps so that loved ones can continue to exist in some form, even after they have passed away.”
Entropia has caused expensive headlines in the past:
The topic is a common sci-fi setting: The idea of a human who can continue to live in a virtual environment is not new. For many years, there have been books on this topic and in recent years, there have been films (Transcendence) or series (Sword Art Online or Black Mirror) addressing this theme. It fulfills the modern human desire for eternal life. And it can also be wonderfully utilized for advertising.
Whether we will actually be able to meet our loved ones as ones and zeros in a virtual world someday remains to be seen.
What do you think of the idea? Would it be great to create a digital version of yourself for eternity? Or do you find it creepy that after death someone talks to you with a program code that mimics you?
