Paper Archive

Mind Uploading Paper Collection

A place to track trends by year and return to the original text only for the papers you need

Mind Uploading Research Project

Public Page Updated: 2026-04-04 Curated archive (updated with the 2026-04-03 paper-front-door human-proxy route sync, including spectroscopy / deuterium operating-point, BCSFB route-family, astrocyte PET route-role, neuroimmune PET route-family summary-layer splits, a glial substrate-routing stop rule, the 2026-04-03 sleep replay route-family sync, and a 2026-04-03 maintenance-shortlist family decomposition across excitability, molecular, ECM, metabolic, and neurovascular / immune / astrocyte rows)

How to use this page

Read this first to avoid getting lost

This page is an archive for broadly surveying papers related to Mind Uploading by year. The key point is not to believe all papers with equal weight, but to grasp quickly which kinds of literature exist for which questions.

  • The archive is organized by year, so changes in attention can be tracked over time.
  • English summaries and the original abstract are both included so readers can return to the source when necessary.
  • The intended workflow is to locate papers in the list first and then dig into only the ones that appear important.
  • Because chronology is not the same thing as evidence strength, primary evidence in technology and natural science is safer to enter from the priority route in the first half of the page.
  • A compact 2025-2026 technical-only shortlist now gives a minimal reading path before the mixed year cards begin.
  • The 2025-2026 technical fast lane now fixes an explicit chronology policy so issue-year citation does not silently merge local causal maintenance papers with bounded human-observability papers.
  • In technology and natural science, it is safer to read not only badge and chronology, but also evidence class.
  • Language-facing papers are no longer treated as one brain-to-text bucket: within-subject semantic reconstruction, fixed-segment retrieval, known-onset word decoding, prompt-conditioned generation, and invasive communication subsystems remain separate routes.
  • Invasive BCI papers are now read on four operational routes: communication speed / expressivity, decoder initialization, fixed-decoder durability, and adaptive stabilization / recalibration.
  • EEG foundation-model papers are now treated as a distinct technical route because corpus disclosure, adaptation regime, benchmark governance, and leaderboard postmortems materially change what a score means.
  • ESI / source-imaging papers are now paired with a field-formation visibility route, because visibility failure is upstream of inverse-solver disagreement and direct validation.
  • Inverse-family source-imaging papers are now read on separate routes as well: focal posterior support, sparse debiased inference, extended-source uncertainty, forward-model / conductivity sensitivity, and named validation boards are not one generic `better ESI` line.
  • Wearable OPM-MEG is now read as a route-conditioned movement-tolerant measurement extension: shielding class, field control, calibration / coregistration, anatomy route, crosstalk, and task regime are not collapsed into one `portable MEG` label.
  • Human tractography papers are now read as route-conditioned macro pathway priors or targeted bundle-hypothesis routes, because endpoint access, anatomical priors, graph construction, protocol choice, and external calibration remain separate burdens.
  • Recent human measurement papers are treated here as two linked but distinct classes: destructive local structure with explicit preservation / registration / proofreading burden, and living-human in vivo proxy routes whose route family has to be fixed before proxy class, operational maturity, and safe calibrator role are read.
  • The archive front door now keeps the human proxy taxonomy internally split as well: five-metabolite 1H-MRSI similarity is not high-resolution metabolite distribution, 31P balance / exchange-flux / NAD-content / localized NAD-dynamics are not one energetic row, deuterium absolute quantification is not deuterium kinetic-rate imaging and still carries dose / time-point / repeatability burden, blood-CSF-barrier routes stay separated into perfusion / transport / water-cycling / apparent-exchange / simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB exchange, astrocyte PET stays separated into SMBT-1 / SL25.1188 / I2BS route-role slices, and neuroimmune PET stays separated into TSPO / CSF1R / COX-2 route-role slices.
  • Human energetic and astrocyte-related proxy advances are no longer allowed to stand in for direct glial substrate-routing: local neuronal bioenergetic state and glial supplier / fuel / transport / sink identity stay separate from macro energetic proxy classes.
  • Human myelin / oligodendrocyte timing evidence is now split at the front door as tract-speed estimation, MWF-versus-calibrated T1w/T2w comparison, relaxometry / MT-family comparison, bilayer-sensitive mapping, developmental diffusion-microstructure with ex vivo oligodendrocyte alignment, qT1 remyelination-sensitive pathology, and T1w/FLAIR tissue-health ceiling rather than one generic `myelin MRI` row.
  • Regional synaptic-density PET is not one route even inside the living-human lane: tracer / quantification route, healthy atlas construction, disease contrast, task / cognition association, activation null, and intervention response answer different questions.
  • Same-brain scaffold papers and regional SV2A proxies are now stopped explicitly below presynaptic release machinery, because release-site number, docked-vesicle architecture, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, and current release competence remain separate claim ceilings.
  • Same-brain functional connectomics is no longer compressed into one `local twin` route: sequential bridge, label source, current synaptic-state ceiling, and dynamical degeneracy are kept separate.
  • Multimodal papers are now read here on four separate routes: synchronized acquisition, shared-vs-specific component evidence, quantity bridge / physiology grounding, and bundle robustness under availability or centre-transfer stress.
  • Same-subject or same-brain evidence is now treated as a separate bridge problem, because sequential acquisition, preservation change, and cross-day regime drift do not collapse into one state sample.
  • Closed-loop / deployment papers are now blocked from overread unless fast timing, drift burden, and slow internal-milieu disclosure are all visible.
  • Neuromodulatory papers are now treated as a distinct route-family split because mixed proxies, local sensors, atlas priors, occupancy PET, and displacement PET answer different questions.
  • Neurovascular / BBB / pericyte papers are now treated as a distinct route-family split because pericyte support causality, activity-linked BBB modulation, capillary-diameter control, human BBB permeability routes, and human blood-CSF barrier / choroid-plexus transport routes answer different questions.
  • Shared extracellular / electrical-state papers are now treated as a distinct route-family split because gap-junction coupling, ephaptic fields, extracellular-space geometry / osmotic regime, and bounded human diffusion-MRI or perturbation clues do not share one claim ceiling.
  • Post-transcriptional RNA evidence is no longer one maintenance row at the literature front door: splice-isoform control, transsynaptic splice-dependent receptor balance, m6A translation, dentate-gyrus- versus forebrain-scale YTHDF2-mediated decay routes, RNA editing, and atlas ceilings now stay separate.
  • Phospho-signaling is no longer one maintenance row at the literature front door: phosphosite-specific plasticity gates, learning-linked local phosphorylation, compartmentalized second-messenger routing, circadian phospho-timing gates, region-specific synapse relocalization, phospho-mutant interventions, and human ex vivo atlas ceilings now stay separate.
  • Local proteostasis is no longer one maintenance row at the literature front door: tag / capture eligibility, branch-level integration, synthesis-degradation balance, autophagy-linked remodeling including PVALB-interneuron proteostasis, and turnover-resistant persistence / candidate tag-substrate routes now stay separate.
  • Cargo-routing is no longer one maintenance row at the literature front door: postsynaptic receptor delivery, transport-path gating / local vesicle confinement, dendritic / synaptic RNA-cargo organization, axonal RNA localization, and presynaptic cargo retention / pausing now stay separate.
  • Recent maintenance-state papers are treated here as route-changing family-split evidence because intrinsic-excitability control, transcriptional stabilization, post-transcriptional RNA control, phospho-signaling, local proteostasis, cargo-routing, ECM / PNN gate state, ionic / chloride regulation, bioenergetic / mitochondrial support, neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support, clearance / immune support, astrocyte multiday traces, and sleep replay / replay-coupling route families remain outside connectome-only reading.
  • Sleep replay papers are now treated here as a route-family split too: phase-locked slow-oscillation stimulation, intracranial synchrony intervention, spindle-locked ripple evidence, spindle-targeted perturbation, sleep-integrity burden, NREM physiology gate, and item / difficulty / memory-age dependence are not one generic overnight-memory row.
  • Recent thermodynamic papers are treated here as an auxiliary physical-grounding route only after route family, coarse-graining / timescale, and physiology-side grounding are disclosed.
Best for
People who want a broad view of related papers, a quick sense of yearly trends, or an entry point back to the original literature.
Reading time
5 minutes to check the table of contents; detailed reading only for the papers you need
Accuracy note
Inclusion means only that a work was picked up as relevant literature. It does not mean that every paper has the same evidential strength.

Relatively clear at this stage

What we know now

  • This page is a broad archive of related papers, not a page that fixes the final evaluation of each paper.
  • Reading by year makes it easier to see which issues are attracting attention over time.
  • Important papers should be approached through the summary first, then traced back to the DOI and the original text.
  • This is a broad archive that also includes law, philosophy, and cultural theory, so the technological frontier should not be judged only from the top of a given year.
  • A compact 2025-2026 technical-only shortlist now sits ahead of the mixed year cards so readers can skip archive noise when they only want current primary routes.
  • For the technical frontier, the core pages cite issue year, but raw 2025-2026 adjacency is not treated as one frontier step because online-publication dates can still differ materially from the cited issue year.
  • EEG foundation-model evidence is no longer read here as one frontier row: representation-learning / efficiency, recording-frame compatibility, label-limited adaptation rescue, and benchmark-governance / postmortem papers constrain different objects and should not be collapsed into one leaderboard story.
  • Source-imaging papers do not begin at the inverse solver; field-formation visibility remains an upstream route that determines which source classes can reach the sensors at all.
  • Inverse-family source-imaging papers do not constrain one shared object either: focal posterior support, sparse debiased inference, extended-source uncertainty, forward-model / conductivity sensitivity, and named validation boards remain separate reading routes.
  • Wearable OPM-MEG is not one portability route either; shielding class, field nulling, calibration / coregistration, anatomy route, crosstalk, and task regime remain separate reading burdens.
  • Human diffusion-MRI tractography now sits on its own reading route as an acquisition-, endpoint-, graph-construction-, and calibration-conditioned macro pathway prior or targeted bundle-hypothesis route; endpoint bias, bundle priors, hub instability, and protocol dependence still have to be separated before a `connectome` paper is read strongly.
  • Destructive human ultrastructure and living-human in vivo proxy routes strengthen different observability layers and should not be compressed into one progress bar.
  • Living-human in vivo routes must be read on three axes at once only after route family is fixed: regional synaptic-density PET, five-metabolite 1H-MRSI similarity, high-resolution 1H-MRSI metabolite-distribution mapping, 31P metabolite / pH balance, 31P MT exchange-flux, 31P NAD-content mapping, localized functional 31P NAD-dynamics, deuterium metabolite-mapping / absolute quantification, deuterium kinetic-rate imaging plus dose / time-point / repeatability burden, tract-speed estimation, MWF-versus-calibrated T1w/T2w comparison, relaxometry / MT-family comparison, bilayer-sensitive mapping, developmental diffusion-microstructure with ex vivo oligodendrocyte alignment, qT1 remyelination-sensitive pathology, T1w/FLAIR tissue-health ceilings, BBB water-exchange MRI, tracer-specific BBB PET transport, choroid-plexus perfusion, blood-to-CSF transport, DCE water cycling, apparent BCSFB exchange, simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB ASL exchange, SMBT-1 target-validation / AD-context / brain-quantification / whole-body-biodistribution routes, SL25.1188 simplified-quantification / severity-conditioned MAO-B routes, I2BS routes, TSPO disease-context / validation-bounded PET, CSF1R route-setting PET, COX-2 enzyme-defined PET, macroscopic CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, respiration-conditioned CSF net flow, exercise-conditioned contrast influx / meningeal-lymphatic flow, intrathecal tracer retention / CSF-to-blood clearance, human CSF-mobility MRI, and model-based biomarker efflux do not constrain one common object.
  • Human energetic imaging and astrocyte-related PET also do not directly identify glial substrate-routing: local neuronal bioenergetic state, lactate-shuttle support, ketone-body routing, fatty-acid flux, and apoE / sortilin-dependent lipid uptake remain different inferential objects.
  • Regional synaptic-density PET is not one route family either: tracer / quantification route, healthy atlas construction, disease contrast, task / cognition association, activation null, and intervention response remain separate reading slices before any current-state language is allowed.
  • Same-brain scaffold papers and regional SV2A proxies do not close presynaptic release machinery: release-site number, docked-vesicle architecture, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, and current release competence remain separate audit objects.
  • The maintenance-state causal frontier and the living-human observability frontier are different inferential ladders, so year order and citation-year conventions must not collapse them into one 2025-2026 progress bar.
  • Multimodal papers are not one route either: synchronization infrastructure, shared-vs-specific component evidence, hemodynamic / metabolic quantity bridge, and bundle robustness under missing-modality or cross-centre disagreement remain separate reading objects.
  • Neurovascular / BBB / pericyte papers do not constrain one common current-state object: pericyte controller causality, activity-linked BBB modulation, capillary-diameter control, human BBB permeability imaging, and human blood-CSF barrier / choroid-plexus transport remain separate routes.
  • Same-subject or same-brain papers can still be bridge-limited evidence; preservation route, elapsed time, regime continuity, and registration validation remain separate audit items.
  • Same-brain functional connectomics is now read here as a sequential local scaffold or task-bounded conditional predictor; morphology-linked label transfer, current synaptic-state evidence, and dynamical identifiability remain separate questions.
  • Invasive BCI papers are no longer treated as one closed-loop progress bar: communication throughput / expressivity, decoder initialization, fixed-decoder durability, and adaptive stabilization / recalibration are separate operational routes.
  • Closed-loop papers are not promoted from latency or drift metrics alone; slow internal-milieu routes such as circadian phase, glucocorticoid state, and insulin / metabolic regime remain separate disclosure burdens.
  • Neuromodulatory papers do not constrain one common inferential object: mixed arousal proxy, local transmitter sensing, receptor / transporter atlas prior, occupancy PET, and challenge-linked displacement PET stay separate reading routes.
  • A paper about m6A does not by itself fix one universal hippocampal reader assignment or the current whole-brain post-transcriptional RNA controller state.
  • Recent maintenance-state papers now split across intrinsic-excitability control, transcriptional stabilization, post-transcriptional RNA control, phospho-signaling, local proteostasis, cargo-routing, ECM / PNN gate state, ionic / chloride regulation, bioenergetic / mitochondrial support, glial substrate-routing, neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support, clearance / immune support, astrocyte-state evidence, and sleep replay / replay-coupling route families, so they should not be filed only as generic background on support variables.
  • Sleep replay / replay-coupling papers do not constrain one common mechanism either: phase-locked slow-oscillation stimulation, spindle-targeted perturbation, intracranial synchrony intervention, spindle-locked ripple evidence, sleep-integrity burden, NREM physiology gate, and memory-selection / age dependence remain separate reading routes.
  • Phospho-signaling papers also need an explicit route-card split here: phosphosite-specific plasticity gates, learning-linked local phosphorylation, compartmentalized second-messenger routing, circadian phospho-timing gates, region-specific synapse relocalization, phospho-mutant interventions, and human ex vivo atlas ceilings do not constrain the same inferential object.
  • Shared extracellular / electrical-state papers do not constrain one common object either: gap-junction coupling, ephaptic field effects, extracellular-space geometry / diffusion barriers / osmotic regime, sleep-linked interstitial-space shifts, and bounded human diffusion-MRI or perturbation clues remain separate routes.
  • Thermodynamic / irreversibility papers are now treated here as route-family claims: coarse-grained lower bounds, time-asymmetry classifiers / graph measures, model-based entropy-flow estimates, and physiology-side grounding are not one common measurement.

Still unresolved beyond this point

What we still do not know

  • Inclusion alone does not mean that a paper counts as central evidence.
  • Not every paper in the archive has been audited to the same depth.

Learn the basics

Check the basics in the wiki

Mind Uploading Paper Collection

This is an archive of major "Mind Uploading" related papers from the past 10 years, organized by the presence or absence of abstracts. First of all, we assume that you will be able to look at the flow and summaries by year, and then go back to the original documents for only the necessary papers.

Total
100
With Abstract
47
No Abstract
53

Before reading

  • The role of this page:To create an entry point for related literature. This is not the only page where you can complete the final evaluation of each paper.
  • Where to look first:First, check the statistics and yearly order, then carefully read only the papers that are closest to your interests.
  • Points to be aware of:Since papers that are widely related are also included, inclusion does not necessarily mean core evidence.
Reading order when lost

First, check the overall volume using the statistics above, then read the summaries of just a few books from the latest year to get a sense of the trends in the issues. If you want to know more about the position of individual papers, you can return to Bibliography Map and check the correspondence with unresolved issues.

When you want to know the position of this page first

This collection of papers is a "wide-ranging entry point," and the Bibliography Map is a "place to organize by unresolved problems." If you're unsure about the difference, looking at Wiki: How to read literature and evidence pages first will help you decide how deep to read.

When you want to distinguish between scenes where you can stop with a summary and scenes where you can return to the original text

This page is your gateway to a broader view of the paper, so there is no need to carefully read the entire text from the beginning. On the other hand, when using important papers as evidence, you need to go back to the DOI and Original Abstract. If you want to see the different uses in one page, please see Wiki: How to use summary, original text, and issue history.

When you want to decide on the next page after reading a paper

If you find a paper in this collection of papers and want to know whether to go back to unresolved problems or link it to a proposal or issue, please see Wiki: Straight path from literature to implementation/participation.

When the Scopus or arXiv display stops

Badges are a clue as to where the document can be traced, but they alone do not determine the strength of the evidence. If you want to check the differences between Scopus, arXiv, Review, Media, source_logged, and evidence classes such as direct validation / system demo / observability-class advance / standard / benchmark / context in one page, it is safe to read Wiki: How to read source types, status labels, and evidence classes first.

When you want to read only technology/natural science first

This collection of papers is a broad archive, so the first year of 2025 is not necessarily in order of technological frontier. In fact, law, metaphysics, and VR work theory are also arranged in the same year. Therefore, if you want to follow the primary evidence in technology and natural sciences, instead of reading from the top in chronological order, first enter from the preferred route for technology and natural sciences below.

Technical chronology policy for the 2025-2026 frontier

On the core technical pages, this site cites papers by the issue year used in the journal record, but it does not let raw year adjacency define one frontier step. The reason is concrete. Nature lists Terceros et al. as Published: 26 November 2025 while the citation line is Nature volume 649, pages 1254-1263 (2026). Dewa et al. is Published: 15 October 2025 with issue date 04 December 2025. Hirschler et al. is Published: 14 October 2025, Dagum et al. is Published: 27 January 2026, and Bukalo et al. is Published: 11 February 2026. Therefore, a 2025-2026 block is not one homogeneous technical frontier. Before the year cards influence your reading, first name whether the paper advances local causal maintenance-state dependence or bounded living-human observability.

If you want the 2026 technical addendum first

The most easily overread auxiliary lane on this page is now the thermodynamic / irreversibility lane. Even after route-family splitting, the current primary literature still requires four additional audits before energetic language is strengthened: reverse-transition support / finite-data handling, observed-state closure / memory order, stability / nuisance sensitivity, and physiology-side bridge quality. Martínez et al. (2019), Hartich & Godec (2024), Martínez et al. (2024), Blom et al. (2024), and Baiesi et al. (2024) show why partial observation, non-Markov memory, and sparse reverse transitions can move the estimate itself, while Poudel et al. (2024), Metzen et al. (2024), and Chen et al. (2025) show that operational stability and physiology-bridge agreement are separate questions again. Therefore, read any thermodynamic paper here only after asking whether the observed trajectory was closed enough for the chosen estimator, whether reverse transitions were actually supported, whether the metric stayed stable under nuisance variation, and whether any claimed metabolic meaning was checked through an explicit physiology-side bridge.

Neurovascular route family now explicitly includes the internally split human blood-CSF barrier lane

The archive front door should no longer let readers fold all human barrier-side papers into one `BBB` bucket. Morgan et al. (2024) and Chung et al. (2025) constrain BBB water-exchange and tracer-specific BBB transport, whereas Zhao et al. (2020), Petitclerc et al. (2021), Anderson et al. (2022), Wu et al. (2026), and Petitclerc et al. (2026) constrain a distinct human blood-CSF-barrier lane that already splits into choroid-plexus perfusion, blood-to-CSF transport, DCE water cycling, apparent BCSFB exchange, and simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB ASL exchange. These papers do not share one crossed boundary, one transport object, one model family, or one validation ceiling, so this site now keeps them separate from both generic BBB language and downstream clearance-side routes.

2026-03 Literature audit: Priority route for technology and natural sciences

The weakness of this page is that although it is useful as a chronological archive, the ordering is weak as a front door to the experimental frontier. From a technology / natural-science perspective, the first thing we want to know is (1) how far non-invasive decoding has progressed, (2) how far invasive speech neuroprosthesis has pushed the same-session communication route, (3) whether rapid or transfer-assisted decoder initialization reduces subject-specific warm-up, (4) whether communication survives fixed-decoder horizons or only after adaptive rescue, (5) how field formation, inverse-family target object, forward-model sensitivity, and named validation boards actually split what a source-imaging paper strengthens, (6) how EEG foundation / self-supervised results change once corpus disclosure, adaptation regime, split construction, and inference-stage budget are held fixed, (7) how effective-connectivity models remain conditional on candidate model space and observation assumptions even when they scale, (8) which multimodal papers advance synchronized acquisition, shared-vs-specific structure, quantity bridge / hemodynamic grounding, or bundle robustness under missing-modality and centre-transfer stress, (9) what humans can actually observe now, at which measurement class, and with what remaining route burden, (10) when a same-subject or same-brain result is still only a sequential bridge rather than one latent-state sample, (11) which maintenance-state families, including intrinsic-excitability control, sleep replay / replay-coupling route families, ECM / PNN gate state, ionic / chloride regulation, bioenergetic / mitochondrial support, glial substrate-routing, neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support, clearance / immune support, transcriptional stabilization, and astrocyte-state, still remain outside the connectome, and (12) how thermodynamic / irreversibility papers split into different estimator families instead of one common physical-grounding result. It is about how much remains, not the first display of law, philosophy, or cultural theory. Therefore, on this page, we clearly indicate the following as the preferred route.

Same-brain functional connectomics is not a solved local twin

The literature front door still needed a narrower stop rule here. Bosch et al. (2022) showed that live physiology to volume-EM correlation is a multistage landmark-based bridge, and MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) strengthened that route into a powerful same-brain local structure-function pipeline, not a simultaneous whole-state sample. Ding et al. (2025) then added a validated stimulus-conditioned response model, whereas Gamlin et al. (2025) still linked transcriptomic identity through morphology-based prediction rather than direct transcriptomic assay inside the EM volume. At the synapse and dynamics level, Molnár et al. (2016), Sakamoto et al. (2018), Holler et al. (2021), Dürst et al. (2022), Emperador-Melero et al. (2024), and Mittermaier et al. (2024) show that current synaptic efficacy, release-site number, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, release probability, and membrane-state-gated consolidation are not exhausted by structure-function correspondence, while Beiran & Litwin-Kumar (2025) show that connectome-constrained dynamics can remain degenerate until extra recordings reduce the solution family. Therefore, this archive now reads same-brain functional connectomics as a sequential local scaffold or task-bounded conditional predictor, not as direct transcriptomic truth, presynaptic release-machinery truth, current synaptic-state readout, or a solved local twin.

Human tractography connectomes are route-conditioned macro pathway priors

The archive front door also still needed a tractography stop rule. Thomas et al. (2014) showed that tractography accuracy is inherently limited when only voxel-averaged local orientation estimates are available, Schilling et al. (2018) showed persistent gyral-endpoint bias across deterministic and probabilistic algorithms, multiple diffusion models, and even high-resolution data, and Schilling et al. (2020) showed that high anatomical accuracy appears mainly when strong start / end / exclusion priors are supplied, which is a targeted bundle-hypothesis route rather than generic edge-complete recovery. Downstream graph meaning is unstable too: Gajwani et al. (2023) showed across 1,760 group connectomes built from 40 pipelines and 44 group-reconstruction schemes that hub location depends strongly on processing choices, while McMaster et al. (2025) and Bramati et al. (2026) show that voxel-size harmonization and diffusion-sampling scheme still move tractography outputs. Even newer gains such as Zhu et al. (2025) improve reconstruction through hybrid MRI-microscopy calibration, not by turning living-human tractography into a finished connectome. Therefore, this archive now reads a human tractography paper first as an acquisition-, endpoint-, graph-construction-, and calibration-conditioned macro pathway prior or, at best, a targeted bundle-hypothesis route. It is not read as a synapse-resolved edge list, one stable hub map, or a WBE-relevant structural completion claim. For the operating rule, go next to Wiki: tractography route card and Verification: Observability Budget.

Shared extracellular / electrical-state papers are not one maintenance route

The literature front door still had one missing U3 split. Galarreta & Hestrin (1999) showed a gap-junction coupling network, Anastassiou et al. (2011) showed endogenous-field / ephaptic spike-timing bias, Graydon et al. (2014) showed local extracellular-volume-fraction geometry and transmitter dilution, Kilb et al. (2006) plus Xie et al. (2013) showed that osmotic or sleep-linked extracellular-space changes can alter excitability or exchange without rewiring, Voldsbekk et al. (2020) remained a bounded human diffusion-MRI extracellular-space proxy clue, and Feld et al. (2026) remained a human perturbation-conditioned electrical-synapse clue with pharmacological caveats. Therefore, this archive no longer lets shared extracellular / electrical state stand in for one common inferential object. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances gap-junction coupling, ephaptic field effects, extracellular-space geometry / diffusion barriers / osmotic regime, sleep-linked interstitial-space proxy, or only a bounded human clue.

Read ECM / PNN papers through an explicit route-family split

The literature front door also still had one missing U3 split in the matrix lane. The primary literature does not support reading ECM / PNN evidence as one generic support variable. Pizzorusso et al. (2002) is a plasticity-window reopening route, Frischknecht et al. (2009) is a receptor-mobility / short-term-plasticity constraint route, Nguyen et al. (2020) is a microglia-driven ECM-remodeling and remote-memory-precision route, Jabłońska et al. (2024) is a synapse-specific inhibitory-plasticity route, Alexander et al. (2025) is a cell-type-specific CA2-versus-PV memory-support route, Mehak et al. (2025) is an age-linked rescue route, and Lehner et al. (2024) plus Banovac et al. (2025) remain human ex vivo histology routes. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one matrix paper stand in for current whole-brain ECM gate state, one common plasticity meter, or a solved human maintenance readout. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances plasticity-window reopening, receptor-mobility constraint, microglial remodeling, inhibitory-plasticity control, CA2-versus-PV memory support, age-linked rescue, or human ex vivo histology.

Read human clearance papers through an explicit route-family split

The literature front door still had one remaining compression inside the human clearance lane. The current primary literature does not support reading human clearance-support evidence as one transport row. Fultz et al. (2019) is a macroscopic sleep-state CSF-oscillation route, Kim, Huang, & Liu (2025) is a parenchyma-CSF water-exchange route, Lim et al. (2025) is a respiration-conditioned net-flow route whose direct observable remains plane-specific awake-state CSF displacement, Yoo et al. (2025) is an exercise-conditioned contrast-influx / meningeal-lymphatic route, Eide et al. (2023) is an intrathecal-tracer / CSF-to-blood-clearance-capacity route, Hirschler et al. (2025) is a CSF-mobility MRI route, and Dagum et al. (2026) is a model-based overnight biomarker-efflux route. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one clearance paper stand in for route-free whole-brain bulk circulation, local immune-controller identity, or one solved human maintenance readout. The safe reading now has to name which transport object, intervention regime, and model burden the paper actually constrains.

Read human neuroimmune PET through an explicit route-family split

The literature front door still had one remaining compression inside the human neuroimmune lane. The current primary literature does not support reading human neuroimmune PET as one reusable immune row. Biechele et al. (2023) show why TSPO is not a species-invariant activation-state meter, Wijesinghe et al. (2025) constrain a TSPO disease-context / validation-bounded route in PSP, Horti et al. (2022) and Ogata et al. (2025) constrain CSF1R route-setting PET under explicit tracer and arterial-input modeling burdens, and Yan et al. (2025) constrain an enzyme-defined COX-2 route with celecoxib blockade. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one neuroimmune PET paper stand in for generic human microglia-state truth, route-free immune-controller identity, or one solved human maintenance readout. The safe reading now has to name the target class, the validation regime, and the route role before any neuroimmune claim is read strongly.

Read myelin / oligodendrocyte timing papers through an explicit route-family split

The literature front door still had one remaining compression inside the human timing-support lane. The primary literature does not support reading myelin / oligodendrocyte evidence as one reusable human row. van Blooijs et al. (2023) is a tract-scale transmission-speed route, Arshad et al. (2017) is an MWF versus calibrated T1w/T2w comparison route, Hagiwara et al. (2018) is a relaxometry / MTsat comparison route, Baadsvik et al. (2024) is a bilayer-sensitive proof-of-principle route, Genc et al. (2025) is a developmental diffusion-microstructure route with ex vivo oligodendrocyte-expression alignment, Chen et al. (2025) show that orientation dependence inside MT-family imaging is itself a route burden, Galbusera et al. (2025) is a qT1 remyelination-sensitive pathology route, and Colaes et al. (2026) show that T1w/FLAIR may remain a general tissue-health marker rather than a myelin-specific readout. Therefore, this archive no longer lets myelin MRI stand in for one common observability class or for per-axon timing-state ground truth. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances tract-speed estimation, cross-metric comparison, bilayer-sensitive mapping, developmental oligodendrocyte alignment, remyelination-sensitive pathology, or only a tissue-health ceiling. For the operating rule, go next to Wiki: myelin / oligodendrocyte route card and Verification: Human Proxy Composition Card.

Read phospho-signaling papers through an explicit route-family split

The literature front door still had one missing U3 split inside the molecular-maintenance lane. The primary literature does not support reading phospho-signaling / second-messenger evidence as one generic controller row. Lee et al. (2003) and Rodrigues et al. (2004) are phosphosite-specific plasticity and learning-linked local phosphorylation routes, Havekes et al. (2016) and Vierra et al. (2023) are compartmentalized second-messenger / signalosome routes, Barone et al. (2023) is a circadian phospho-timing gate, Altas et al. (2024) is a region-specific phosphorylation and synapse-localization route, Rodriguez et al. (2025) is a single-site phospho-mutant causal intervention, and Biswas et al. (2023) is a human ex vivo phosphoproteome atlas route. Therefore, this archive now asks the reader to name whether the paper advances a phosphosite-specific plasticity gate, a learning-linked local phosphorylation route, a compartmentalized second-messenger / signalosome route, a circadian phospho-timing gate, a region-specific synapse-localization route, a single-site phospho-mutant intervention, or a human ex vivo atlas ceiling before any phospho paper is promoted to generic maintenance state evidence.

Closed-loop deployability is not fixed by timing and drift alone

The literature front door also needed one slower boundary. de Quervain et al. (1998) and Oei et al. (2007) showed that glucocorticoid state can impair retrieval and reduce human hippocampal / prefrontal retrieval activity. McCauley et al. (2020), Barone et al. (2023), and Birnie et al. (2023) showed that circadian timing and corticosteroid rhythm change hippocampal plasticity machinery, while Reger et al. (2008) and Sherman et al. (2015) show that insulin delivery and circadian-rhythm consistency can shift human memory or hippocampal activity. Therefore, papers in the fixed-decoder, recalibration, or deployability lane are no longer read here from latency, jitter, or drift curves alone. The safe reading now also asks whether slow internal-milieu routes such as circadian phase, glucocorticoid state, and insulin / metabolic regime were controlled, measured, perturbed, or left latent.

Read EEG foundation-model papers through a four-way route split

The technical front door still had one remaining compression inside the EEG foundation-model lane. The current literature and official benchmark operations do not support reading foundation models as one common frontier step. Kostas et al. (2021), Jiang et al. (2024), and Lee et al. (2025) constrain a representation-learning / efficiency lane. Han et al. (2025), Chen et al. (2025), and El Ouahidi et al. (2025) constrain a recording-frame compatibility lane. Ma et al. (2026) support a label-limited adaptation rescue lane. The official EEG Challenge (2025) homepage, rules, submission page, and leaderboard, together with Xiong et al. (2025), Liu et al. (2026), and Lahiri et al. (2026), constrain a benchmark-governance / postmortem lane. Therefore, this archive now splits that literature into four rows before any reader treats one model family, one setup paper, one adaptation result, or one leaderboard as if they already formed one general decoder story.

Technical route to read first Previous primary literature What I can say now Things I can't say yet Next page
Language decode / Neural Contribution Card Tang et al. (2023), Défossez et al. (2023), d'Ascoli et al. (2025), Ye et al. (2025) Considerable progress has been made, but on different route types: Tang is within-subject semantic reconstruction from fMRI, Défossez is fixed-segment speech retrieval from M/EEG, d'Ascoli is known-onset word decoding at scale, and Ye is prompt-conditioned generation with brain-derived inputs. What gets stronger directly here is neural contribution under an explicit scaffold, not one common solved brain-to-text capability. It does not show unrestricted thought reading, prompt-free open-ended decoding, subject-independent stable communication, or the internal-state reconstruction required for WBE. Timing regime, candidate bank, prompt budget, and subject route still remain part of the claim. Perspective: brain-to-text section / Verification: Neural Contribution Card
Invasive speech neuroprosthesis / communication throughput Willett et al. (2023), Littlejohn et al. (2025), Wairagkar et al. (2025) Achieves high-vocabulary text decoding, streaming brain-to-voice, near-instant voice synthesis, and explicit silence fallback under a task-limited communication scaffold. This strongly pushes the same-session communication subsystem frontier. Whole-brain emulation, identity preservation, subject-general everyday communication, decoder initialization, fixed-decoder durability, and zero-recalibration autonomy have not yet been demonstrated. FAQ: how to read brain-to-text claims / Verification: Neural Contribution Card
Decoder initialization / transfer-assisted route Card et al. (2024), Singh et al. (2025) Shows that communication systems can start from a much shorter subject-specific warm-up or from a group-derived transfer prior, reducing the amount of individualized data needed before useful decoding appears. That still does not prove subject-general everyday communication, long-horizon fixed-decoder validity, robustness across coverage regimes, or low-maintenance autonomy after deployment. FAQ: how to read brain-to-text claims / Verification: Neural Contribution Card
Fixed-decoder durability / instability audit Pun et al. (2024), Wairagkar et al. (2025) Shows that model drift, decoder-instability measures, and fixed-decoder performance decline are themselves measurable objects rather than background noise. This directly strengthens the fixed-decoder durability slice. That still does not prove rescue is solved, that drift can be ignored, or that one participant and interface define a deployable stability regime. Wiki: state, trait, and drift / Wiki: closed loop, latency, jitter, and safety stops
Adaptive stabilization / recalibration route Karpowicz et al. (2025), Wilson et al. (2025) Adaptive stabilization and unsupervised recalibration can preserve useful control across weeks to months despite accumulating neural changes. This directly strengthens the rescue route, not the claim that the original decoder stayed valid. That still does not prove no drift, zero-maintenance autonomy, task-general durability, speech-specific deployability, or clinic-to-home robustness. Stabilized use and fixed-decoder validity remain different claims. Wiki: state, trait, and drift / Wiki: closed loop, latency, jitter, and safety stops
ESI / source imaging with direct validation Mikulan et al. (2020), Unnwongse et al. (2023), Hao et al. (2025) Direct validation using known stimulus locations and simultaneous SEEG allows for significant auditing of the effects of localization error, source depth, and conductivity assumptions. It is not possible to support the claim that general uniqueness restoration can be obtained even if the head model is changed. Datasets: validation ladder / From observation to estimation
Wearable OPM-MEG / movement-tolerant macro electrophysiology Boto et al. (2018), Rea et al. (2021), Mellor et al. (2022), Holmes et al. (2025), Rhodes et al. (2025), Wu et al. (2025), Spedden et al. (2025) Wearable OPM-MEG now supports motion-tolerant macro electrophysiology under explicitly engineered magnetic environments, including standing/mobile, lightly shielded, MRI-light source-model, and narrow whole-body-movement demonstrations. What gets stronger directly is movement-tolerant acquisition under a disclosed field-control and anatomy route, not one generic portability upgrade. It still does not show shield-free ordinary-room measurement, calibration-free source truth, anatomy-free source reconstruction, broad naturalistic coverage, or a stronger claim ceiling than the EEG / MEG visibility / inverse / validation wall. Field nulling, crosstalk, and task regime remain part of the claim. Wiki: multimodal integration basics / Wiki: EEG / MEG validation wall
EEG foundation models / representation-learning base Kostas et al. (2021), Jiang et al. (2024), Lee et al. (2025) Self-supervised or large-scale pretraining can improve representation learning and some low-label downstream transfer, but current accepted papers still show modest gains and efficiency limits. What gets stronger directly is a reusable representation under named task families, not a settled general decoder. It still does not show that generalization is solved, that larger models win by default, or that subject-invariant source-identifiable decoding has been achieved. Wiki: EEG foundation models and pretraining / Verification: Pretraining Card
EEG foundation models / recording-frame compatibility Han et al. (2025), Chen et al. (2025), El Ouahidi et al. (2025) Channel-permutation equivariance, coordinate-based embeddings, and any-setup pretraining make heterogeneous devices and layouts more tractable. What gets stronger directly is recording-frame compatibility under declared geometry and reference policies. It still does not show one shared physiology-preserving coordinate system, shortcut-resistant transfer, or route-free montage equivalence across devices, references, and omitted channels. Wiki: setup compatibility is not physiological equivalence / Verification: Pretraining Card
EEG foundation models / label-limited adaptation rescue Lee et al. (2025), Ma et al. (2026) PEFT / LoRA and structured adaptation can recover downstream performance while lowering trainable burden when target labels are scarce. What gets stronger directly is an adaptation policy under a named label budget, not the claim that the pretrained representation transferred without rescue. It still does not show zero-shot clinical portability, low-maintenance deployment, or that adaptation burden has disappeared from cross-subject / cross-day use. Wiki: EEG foundation models and pretraining / Verification: Pretraining Card
EEG benchmarks / governance and postmortem EEG Challenge (2025) homepage, rules, submission, leaderboard, Xiong et al. (2025), Liu et al. (2026), Lahiri et al. (2026) Official operations and benchmark papers now show that task mix, split construction, hidden grouping, checkpoint selection, normalization, and inference-stage budget materially change what a leaderboard or benchmark score means. It still does not show that one leaderboard or one benchmark paper has fixed a universal ranking, portable subject-invariant decoding, or a stable capability ladder for EEG foundation models. Wiki: the 10 gates before reading a foundation model / Verification: Pretraining Card
effective connectivity / DCM route card Penny et al. (2004), Rosa et al. (2012), Frässle et al. (2021), Zhang et al. (2024), Jafarian et al. (2024), Ma et al. (2024), Wu et al. (2024), Novelli et al. (2025) Candidate generative models can be compared at larger scale, directed-connectivity estimates can be produced faster, processing-policy sensitivity can be measured explicitly, and reliability can be quantified under tightly matched acquisition, scan-duration, and sample-size conditions. A denser or faster graph is still not discovered causal wiring, and a graph that survives one preprocessing recipe or one tightly matched reliability regime is still not condition-general portability. Wiki: effective-connectivity route card / Roadmap R4
multimodal route split: sync / shared-factor / quantity-bridge / robustness Kothe et al. (2025), Vafaii et al. (2024), Chen et al. (2025), Bolt et al. (2025), Epp et al. (2025), Amiri et al. (2023), Manasova et al. (2026) Primary papers now support four narrower multimodal advances: millisecond-scale synchronized acquisition, shared and divergent cross-modal structure, coupled but still quantity-bearing hemodynamic / metabolic dynamics, and sometimes bundle-performance gains under explicitly declared same-sample or multicentre regimes. Shared clocks are still not device-delay truth, shared factors are still not automatically one target neural variable, BOLD-metabolic agreement is still not guaranteed, and multimodal gains can still depend on a narrow complete-case slice, missing-modality handling, or hard-regime disagreement rather than a robust common state readout. Wiki: Multimodal integration basics / Verification: Fusion Card / Wiki: Observability and claim ceiling for each measurement stack
destructive ultrastructure / preservation-registration-proof gate Lu et al. (2023), Shapson-Coe et al. (2024), Dorkenwald et al. (2024), MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) It becomes concrete that nanoscale or petascale structural papers strengthen a destructive local scaffold only after preservation route, registration scope, throughput, and proofreading burden are named explicitly. Do not read these papers as live native-state capture, same-time whole-brain state measurement, or finished error-free whole-brain readiness. Verification: Destructive-Structure Route Card / Wiki: destructive ultrastructure wall
human in vivo observability / proxy ladder Johansen et al. (2024), Lucchetti et al. (2025), Guo et al. (2025), Ren et al. (2015), Ren et al. (2017), Guo et al. (2024), Kaiser et al. (2026), Karkouri et al. (2026), Li et al. (2025), van Blooijs et al. (2023), Baadsvik et al. (2024), Genc et al. (2025), Galbusera et al. (2025), Colaes et al. (2026), Morgan et al. (2024), Chung et al. (2025), Villemagne et al. (2022), Hiraoka et al. (2025), Mesfin et al. (2026), Matsuoka et al. (2026), Tyacke et al. (2018), Livingston et al. (2022), Best et al. (2026), Fultz et al. (2019), Kim, Huang, & Liu (2025), Eide et al. (2023), Hirschler et al. (2025), Dagum et al. (2026) It becomes much clearer which living-human in vivo advances are regional synaptic-density PET, 1H-MRSI parcel similarity, high-resolution 1H-MRSI metabolite distribution, 31P metabolite / pH balance, 31P MT exchange-flux, 31P NAD-content mapping, localized functional 31P NAD-dynamics, deuterium metabolite-mapping / absolute quantification, deuterium kinetic-rate imaging, tract-speed plus quantity-defined myelin / oligodendrocyte proxy routes with an internal family split, BBB water-exchange MRI, tracer-specific BBB PET transport, target-defined astrocyte PET with SMBT-1 target-validation / AD-context / brain-quantification / whole-body-biodistribution, SL25.1188 simplified-quantification / severity-conditioned MAO-B, and I2BS slices, macroscopic CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, intrathecal tracer retention / CSF-to-blood clearance, human CSF-mobility MRI, and model-based overnight biomarker efflux. Just as importantly, these papers differ in safe calibrator role: the route can calibrate regional synaptic-density contrast, parcel-level metabolite similarity, high-resolution metabolite-distribution structure, bounded energetic balance, model-conditioned exchange flux, macro NAD-content maps, localized NAD dynamics, deuterium absolute metabolite mapping / quantification, kinetic-rate maps, tract-speed or bounded macro myelin / oligodendrocyte-linked proxy classes, target-defined astrocyte-related burden under a named tracer family and quantification regime, sleep-state CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, intrathecal-tracer / CSF-to-blood-clearance capacity, CSF mobility, or model-based biomarker efflux without becoming one common state meter. These papers do not provide a comparable in vivo whole-brain readout of current transcription / chromatin state, current post-transcriptional RNA-state, current phospho-signaling / second-messenger state, ECM / PNN gate state, branch-local proteostasis / synaptic-tag capture, branch- or bouton-specific cargo-routing, chloride homeostasis, branch-local mitochondrial positioning, cell-specific immune-controller state, or cell-specific neurovascular-controller state, and they do not yet compose into same-subject, same-session, externally calibrated state closure. A proxy-rich bundle still needs explicit calibrator-role logging and shared-driver audit. WBE 101: human observability ladder / Wiki: human maintenance-state proxy ladder
state-continuity bridge / sequential same-brain claims Lu et al. (2023), Bosch et al. (2022), MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025), Egger et al. (2024) Same-subject or same-brain wording can now be read more narrowly: it may justify specimen linkage, landmark-based correlative workflow, or cross-day reacquisition design, but only after acquisition order, elapsed time, regime continuity, and bridge-validation rung are disclosed. Do not read these papers as same-time capture, same-state continuity, or maintenance-consistent multistack closure. Wiki: State-Continuity Bridge / Verification: State-Continuity Bridge Card
neurovascular / BBB / blood-CSF barrier route-card split Bell et al. (2010), Kisler et al. (2020), Pandey et al. (2023), Swissa et al. (2024), Mai-Morente et al. (2025), Padrela et al. (2025), Chung et al. (2025), Zhao et al. (2020), Petitclerc et al. (2021), Anderson et al. (2022), Wu et al. (2026), Petitclerc et al. (2026) It becomes concrete that pericyte controller causality, activity-linked BBB modulation, capillary-diameter support for memory, human BBB permeability / exchange imaging, and human blood-CSF barrier / choroid-plexus transport imaging are related but non-identical route families. Controller-side biology, BBB imaging, and BCSFB imaging are no longer safe to collapse into one vascular bucket. These papers do not provide a direct human readout of cell-specific neurovascular-controller state, choroid-plexus epithelial transporter identity, synapse-resolved support control, or local barrier-maintenance closure, and the human routes still remain macro permeability / exchange proxies rather than local controller measurements. Wiki: neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte state / WBE 101: human observability ladder
shared extracellular / electrical-state route split Galarreta & Hestrin (1999), Anastassiou et al. (2011), Graydon et al. (2014), Kilb et al. (2006), Xie et al. (2013), Voldsbekk et al. (2020), Feld et al. (2026) It becomes concrete that gap-junction coupling, endogenous-field / ephaptic effects, extracellular-space geometry / diffusion barriers / osmotic regime, sleep-linked interstitial-space shifts, and bounded human diffusion-MRI or perturbation clues are related but non-identical route families. Fast synchrony, spillover control, and state-transition evidence are no longer safe to compress into one electrical-state bucket. These papers do not provide one direct whole-brain readout of the current shared extracellular / electrical state, local inhibitory driving force, or cell-specific extracellular geometry in vivo, and the current human routes remain bounded proxy or perturbation clues rather than local ground truth. Wiki: shared extracellular / electrical-state route card / Verification: Observability Budget
ECM / PNN route-family split Pizzorusso et al. (2002), Frischknecht et al. (2009), Nguyen et al. (2020), Jabłońska et al. (2024), Alexander et al. (2025), Mehak et al. (2025), Lehner et al. (2024), Banovac et al. (2025) It becomes concrete that plasticity-window reopening, receptor-mobility / short-term-plasticity constraint, microglia-driven ECM remodeling, synapse-specific inhibitory-plasticity control, CA2-versus-PV memory support, age-linked rescue, and human ex vivo histology are related but non-identical route families. Matrix evidence is no longer safe to compress into one support or one plasticity bucket. These papers do not provide a direct living-human whole-brain readout of current ECM / PNN gate state, one common plasticity meter, or a solved human in vivo maintenance-state observable. Wiki: ECM / PNN route card / Verification: Maintenance-State Error Budget
phospho-signaling / second-messenger route-card split Lee et al. (2003), Rodrigues et al. (2004), Havekes et al. (2016), Vierra et al. (2023), Barone et al. (2023), Altas et al. (2024), Rodriguez et al. (2025), Biswas et al. (2023) It becomes concrete that phospho papers split into phosphosite-specific plasticity gates, learning-linked local phosphorylation, compartmentalized second-messenger / signalosome routing, circadian phospho-timing gates, region-specific synapse relocalization, single-site phospho-mutant causal interventions, and human ex vivo phosphoproteome atlases. These are related but non-identical route families with different direct observables and different claim ceilings. These papers do not provide a direct living-human whole-brain readout of current phosphosite occupancy, kinase/phosphatase balance, or compartment-specific second-messenger nanodomains, and they do not close one universal memory controller or current whole-brain phospho-state. Wiki: phospho-signaling route card / WBE 101: state completeness
maintenance-state / mechanistic boundary Hadzibegovic et al. (2025), Benoit et al. (2025), Hengen et al. (2016), Tallman et al. (2025), Huber et al. (2013), Kuhn et al. (2016), Zrenner et al. (2018), Khatri et al. (2025), Fehér et al. (2026), Alfonsa et al. (2025), Bell et al. (2010), Pandey et al. (2023), Mai-Morente et al. (2025), Terceros et al. (2026), Vishwanath et al. (2026), Kim et al. (2025), Dewa et al. (2025), Bukalo et al. (2026) It becomes concrete that intrinsic-excitability itself is not one slot: animal papers split allocation / early engram bias, AIS / channel-state plasticity, and homeostatic set-point / recovery control, while human papers split a local clinical single-unit allocation route from sleep-homeostasis / plasticity proxies and state-gated perturbation proxies. These sit beside chloride-dependent plasticity gating, neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support, transcriptional stabilization, bioenergetic / mitochondrial support, clearance / immune synaptic regulation, astrocyte multiday trace, and astrocyte-enabled neural representations as separate boundary families outside the connectome. Do not file these papers as one generic support bucket, and do not reinterpret the human subroutes as a direct whole-brain excitability or controller readout, or as proof that long-run state closure is already solved. hidden state section of WBE 101 / Homeostatic plasticity and maintenance state
thermodynamic / irreversibility route family Lynn et al. (2021), de la Fuente et al. (2023), Nartallo-Kaluarachchi et al. (2025), Ishihara & Shimazaki (2025), Epp et al. (2025) Brain-signal irreversibility can now be read as several distinct route families: coarse-grained lower bounds, time-asymmetry / visibility-graph indices, model-based entropy-flow estimates, and physiology-side oxygen-metabolism calibration, with a second audit layer for reverse-transition support / finite-data handling, memory order / observed-state closure, and operational stability. Do not collapse these papers into one common EPR measurement, direct microscopic dissipation, direct metabolic-cost readout, a stability-certified comparison lane, or a WBE gate. Wiki: thermodynamic grounding basics / Verification: thermodynamic indicators
How to use this table

If you are looking for primary evidence in technology or the natural sciences, first decide which route above you want to look at. Then go down to the yearly cards and go back to the DOI and original abstract instead of the summary. The first paper in chronological order does not necessarily mean the strongest evidence.

Read foundation-model papers with benchmark operations beside them

Do not read EEG foundation-model papers through architecture name alone. Kostas et al. (2021), Jiang et al. (2024), and Lee et al. (2025) already show that transfer is conditional on EEG heterogeneity, adaptation, and parameter efficiency, while the official EEG Challenge submission page and leaderboard show that inference-time rules and split construction can change what a benchmark is measuring. On this site, foundation-model progress is therefore read as a joint object: representation-learning evidence plus benchmark-governance evidence. Several of these sources are surfaced here in the fast-lane table before full year-card integration precisely because chronology alone is too weak for this route.

Read language-facing papers only after a Neural Contribution Card

This archive still becomes too easy to overread if a reader sees fluent text or speech output and silently treats every language-facing paper as the same `brain-to-text` capability. The primary literature does not support that shortcut. Tang et al. (2023) showed within-subject semantic reconstruction from fMRI and explicitly reported that successful decoding required subject cooperation. Défossez et al. (2023) showed 3-second speech-segment identification from non-invasive M/EEG and found that predictions were driven primarily by lexical and contextual semantic representations. d'Ascoli et al. (2025) scaled known-onset word decoding to 723 participants and five million words, while still finding MEG > EEG, reading > listening, and strong gains from more training data and test-time averaging. Ye et al. (2025) then showed prompt-conditioned generation that beat prompt-only and permuted-brain controls, but the route still depended on prompt length, LLM scaffold, and a beam-search generation budget. Finally, Singh et al. (2025) showed that invasive phoneme decoding can benefit from cross-subject transfer learning under distributed sEEG coverage, but still within a speech-motor task rather than free conversation. Therefore, this archive now asks readers to separate timing / segmentation regime, prior scaffold / prompt budget, brain-minus-prior baselines, and subject route / cooperation / adaptation burden before any language paper is promoted beyond task-conditioned evidence.

Read invasive BCI papers through an operational-route split

The archive also becomes too easy to overread if a reader sees one day of fluent speech, a short calibration session, or a rescued long-horizon loop and silently treats them as the same result. The primary literature does not support that shortcut either. Willett et al. (2023), Littlejohn et al. (2025), and Wairagkar et al. (2025) push communication speed / expressivity. Card et al. (2024) and Singh et al. (2025) improve decoder initialization, but by different routes: rapid same-subject calibration versus transfer-assisted initialization under distributed recordings. Pun et al. (2024) and the fixed-decoder slice in Wairagkar et al. (2025) expose fixed-decoder durability and drift as their own measurable object. Karpowicz et al. (2025) and Wilson et al. (2025) then strengthen adaptive stabilization / recalibration rather than fixed-decoder validity. Therefore, this archive now separates communication throughput / expressivity, decoder initialization, fixed-decoder durability, and adaptive stabilization / recalibration before any invasive BCI is read as long-horizon autonomy.

Read effective-connectivity papers as route-card claims

Penny et al. (2004), Rosa et al. (2012), Frässle et al. (2021), and Wu et al. (2024) show why larger-scale DCM mainly strengthens tractability. Zhang et al. (2024) then show that reasonable task-fMRI processing choices such as GLM design and activation contrast can materially move effective-connectivity patterns and parameter certainty, while Jafarian et al. (2024) and Ma et al. (2024) show that reliability itself is conditional on matched acquisition, scan duration, and sample size. Novelli et al. (2025) and Yan et al. (2026) then keep sampling and latent-confound ceilings open. Therefore, this archive reads effective-connectivity papers through four separate questions: tractability, processing-policy sensitivity, conditional reliability, and causal validity. On this site, whole-brain scale or faster inversion is not read as solved identifiability.

Read demo and boundary paper as a pair

When you see a high score for decode or neuroprosthesis, don't just promote it, but be sure to read at least one mechanistic boundary / hidden-state evidence for the same issue. While system demos push up "what could have been," papers like Gouwens, Hengen, Xu, Looser, Terceros, Shi, Peterson, Vierra, Pandey, Aiken, Cahill, Dewa, and Bukalo push up "what's not good enough." Both are required to read Technology Frontier.

Split destructive structure from living-human observability

Shapson-Coe et al. (2024) does not play the same evidential role as Johansen et al. (2024), Lucchetti et al. (2025), Guo et al. (2025), Ren et al. (2015), Ren et al. (2017), Guo et al. (2024), Karkouri et al. (2026), Li et al. (2025), Villemagne et al. (2022), Villemagne et al. (2022), Hiraoka et al. (2025), Mesfin et al. (2026), Matsuoka et al. (2026), Tyacke et al. (2018), Livingston et al. (2022), Best et al. (2026), Fultz et al. (2019), Kim, Huang, & Liu (2025), Eide et al. (2023), Hirschler et al. (2025), or Dagum et al. (2026). Lu et al. (2023) show why preservation route changes the ultrastructure itself, Dorkenwald et al. (2024) show that petascale connectomics still carries heavy proofreading burden, and MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) show that same-brain function plus EM remains a sequential local pipeline. By contrast, the in vivo human papers split across selected route families under their own model burdens: regional synaptic-density PET, five-metabolite 1H-MRSI similarity, high-resolution 1H-MRSI metabolite distribution, 31P metabolite / pH balance, 31P MT exchange-flux, 31P NAD-content mapping, localized functional 31P NAD-dynamics, deuterium metabolite-mapping / absolute quantification, deuterium kinetic-rate imaging plus dose / time-point / repeatability burden, tract-scale transmission-speed plus quantity-defined myelin / oligodendrocyte-linked routes, BBB water-exchange MRI, tracer-specific BBB PET transport, choroid-plexus perfusion / blood-to-CSF transport / DCE water cycling / apparent BCSFB exchange / simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB ASL exchange, astrocyte PET with SMBT-1 target-validation / AD-context / brain-quantification / whole-body-biodistribution, SL25.1188 simplified-quantification / severity-conditioned MAO-B, and I2BS slices, macroscopic CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, intrathecal tracer retention / CSF-to-blood clearance, human CSF-mobility MRI, and model-based biomarker efflux. On this site, destructive local structure is therefore read through a preservation / registration / proofreading gate, and the in vivo human papers are read through a separate proxy-class x route-maturity ladder. Even taken together, those human energetic and astrocyte-related rows do not directly identify which glial supplier delivered which fuel object through which transport route to which neuronal sink.

Route name alone is too coarse for human in vivo papers

The archive still becomes too easy to overread if a reader sees `human MRI / PET progress` and silently lets one route inherit another route's ceiling. The current primary literature does not support that shortcut. Lucchetti et al. (2025) define a five-metabolite parcel-similarity scaffold, while Guo et al. (2025) define a high-resolution metabolite-distribution route with explicit ghosting / aliasing / low-SNR handling and subspace-model burden. Ren et al. (2015) constrains 31P metabolite / pH balance, Ren et al. (2017) constrains 31P MT exchange-flux, Guo et al. (2024) constrains whole-brain NAD-content mapping, Kaiser et al. (2026) constrains localized functional NAD-dynamics, Karkouri et al. (2026) constrains absolute deuterated metabolite distributions, and Li et al. (2025) constrains deuterium kinetic-rate imaging. Ahmadian et al. (2025) and Bøgh et al. (2024) further show that deuterium dose and repeatability are route-specific operating conditions rather than generic guarantees. Morgan et al. (2024) and Chung et al. (2025) separate BBB water-exchange from tracer-specific transport, while Zhao et al. (2020), Petitclerc et al. (2021), Anderson et al. (2022), Wu et al. (2026), and Petitclerc et al. (2026) separate blood-CSF barrier / choroid-plexus perfusion, blood-to-CSF water transport, DCE water cycling, REXI exchange, and simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB ASL exchange. Villemagne et al. (2022) and Tyacke et al. (2018) separate MAO-B from I2BS astrocyte PET, Hiraoka et al. (2025) show that SMBT-1 MAO-B PET itself still splits by quantification route, Matsuoka et al. (2026) show that SL25.1188 MAO-B also has a separate simplified arterial-free AD quantification route, and Best et al. (2026) show that SL25.1188 MAO-B also shifts with cohort severity and smoking regime. Fultz et al. (2019) add macroscopic CSF oscillation, Kim, Huang, & Liu (2025) add parenchyma-CSF water exchange, Eide et al. (2023) add intrathecal-tracer / CSF-to-blood-clearance capacity, Hirschler et al. (2025) add mobility mapping, and Dagum et al. (2026) add model-based overnight efflux. On this site, modality label alone is therefore never enough; the route has to be named at the quantity, target, tracer-family, transport, or quantification-regime level before its claim ceiling is read.

Human energetic and astrocyte-related proxies do not identify glial substrate-routing

The archive also became too easy to overread when a reader saw human energetic imaging or astrocyte-related PET and silently promoted those rows to direct evidence about which glial supplier delivered which fuel to which neuronal sink. The current primary literature does not support that shortcut. Suzuki et al. (2011) constrain a lactate-shuttle support route, Silva et al. (2022) constrain a glia-to-neuron ketone-body route under starvation, Pavlowsky et al. (2025) constrain a glia-to-neuron fatty-acid route during intensive learning, and Greda et al. (2025) constrain apoE / sortilin-dependent neuronal lipid uptake and fuel-choice gating. By contrast, Ren et al. (2015), Ren et al. (2017), Guo et al. (2024), Kaiser et al. (2026), Karkouri et al. (2026), and Li et al. (2025) constrain macro energetic proxy classes of different quantity types, while Villemagne et al. (2022), Matsuoka et al. (2026), and Tyacke et al. (2018) constrain target-defined astrocyte-related proxy routes. Therefore, this archive no longer lets human energetic or astrocyte-related proxy papers stand in for direct identification of the active glial supplier, fuel class, transport axis, or neuronal sink. The safe reading now has to say whether the paper constrains local neuronal bioenergetic state, a named glial substrate-routing route family, or only a macro / target-defined human proxy class.

Human intrinsic-excitability evidence is already split across three human routes

The archive still becomes too easy to overread if a reader sees `human excitability evidence` and silently treats every paper as if it measured the same latent controller. The current primary literature does not support that shortcut. Tallman et al. (2025) is a local clinical single-unit allocation-related route in the human hippocampus. Huber et al. (2013), Kuhn et al. (2016), and Fehér et al. (2026) are sleep-history / plasticity-recalibration proxies. Zrenner et al. (2018) and Khatri et al. (2025) are state-gated perturbation proxies. These papers differ in spatial unit, perturbation burden, and direct observable, and none of them directly identifies AIS geometry, ion-channel distribution, or the responsible recovery controller in vivo. On this site, human intrinsic-excitability evidence therefore has to be read as a route-family split, not as one common human meter.

Read same-subject / same-brain papers through a bridge audit

The next overread to stop is to treat same-subject or same-brain as if those labels already solved same-state continuity. The primary literature does not support that shortcut. Lu et al. (2023) show that preservation route changes extracellular-space retention and downstream ultrastructure, Bosch et al. (2022) show that correlative live-to-EM work is a landmark-based multistage bridge, MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) show that same-brain function plus EM remains a sequential local pipeline, and Egger et al. (2024) show that even repeated live EEG can drift over a 10-hour window enough to motivate adaptive decoders. On this site, specimen identity is therefore read only as one bridge ingredient. The full guardrail is the Wiki: State-Continuity Bridge plus the Verification: State-Continuity Bridge Card.

Read maintenance-state papers as route-changing evidence

Papers such as Hadzibegovic et al. (2025), Alfonsa et al. (2025), Terceros et al. (2026), Peterson et al. (2025), Vierra et al. (2023), Pandey et al. (2021), Aiken & Holzbaur (2024), Pizzorusso et al. (2002), Frischknecht et al. (2009), Nguyen et al. (2020), Jabłońska et al. (2024), Alexander et al. (2025), Mehak et al. (2025), Gibson et al. (2014), Cohen et al. (2020), Xin et al. (2024), Della-Flora Nunes et al. (2025), Vishwanath et al. (2026), Kim et al. (2025), Dewa et al. (2025), and Bukalo et al. (2026) should not be filed as vague background on "plasticity" or "support." Together they sharpen which hidden-state families stay outside a neuron-only or connectome-only reading: intrinsic-excitability control, ionic / chloride gating, transcriptional stabilization, post-transcriptional RNA control, phospho-signaling / second-messenger routing, local proteostasis / tag-capture balance, cargo-routing state, ECM / PNN gate state, myelin / oligodendrocyte timing support, bioenergetic / mitochondrial support, clearance / immune support, astrocyte multiday traces, and astrocyte-enabled neural representations. On this site, these are read as family-split boundary papers that change what a high-score demo still cannot claim.

Read post-transcriptional RNA papers through an explicit route-family split

The archive front door still had one remaining compression inside the maintenance lane. The current primary literature does not support reading post-transcriptional RNA evidence as one generic support variable or one reusable m6A row. Wang et al. (2015) is a neuron-specific splice-isoform route whose downstream object is chromatin / transcriptional elongation control. Dai et al. (2019) is a splice-dependent transsynaptic receptor-balance route. Shi et al. (2018) is a neuronal-stimulus-dependent YTHDF1 translation route, whereas Zhuang et al. (2023) and Li et al. (2025) are YTHDF2-mediated decay / stability routes with different scope: dentate-gyrus-specific reader assignment plus mossy-fiber / MF-CA3 development on the one hand, and forebrain-scale enhancement of activity-dependent protein synthesis and hippocampus-dependent memory on the other. Peterson et al. (2025) is an ADAR2 / GluA2 RNA-editing route for homeostatic scaling, and Joglekar et al. (2024) is a long-read atlas / observability-ceiling route rather than a living-human whole-brain in vivo readout. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one RNA paper stand in for current whole-brain RNA-controller state, one universal hippocampal m6A-reader assignment, or one solved human observability class. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances splice-isoform control, transsynaptic splice-dependent receptor balance, m6A translation, dentate-gyrus- or forebrain-scale YTHDF2-mediated decay / stability, RNA editing, or atlas ceiling.

Read local proteostasis papers through an explicit route-family split

The archive front door still had one remaining compression inside the maintenance lane. The current primary literature does not support reading local proteostasis evidence as one generic consolidation controller. Frey & Morris (1997) and Shires et al. (2012) are tag / capture eligibility routes. Govindarajan et al. (2011) is a branch-level integration route. Fonseca et al. (2006), Pandey et al. (2021), and Chalatsi et al. (2026) are synthesis-degradation / autophagy-linked proteostasis routes, but at different controller scales: late-LTP maintenance balance, translation-coupled long-term-memory formation, and PVALB-interneuron proteostasis / excitability with hippocampus-dependent memory, respectively. Lee et al. (2022) and Thomas et al. (2025) are turnover-resistant persistence or candidate tag-substrate routes. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one proteostasis paper stand in for current whole-branch capture readiness, one generic autophagy controller, or one solved human observability class. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances tag / capture eligibility, branch-level integration, synthesis-degradation balance, autophagy-linked remodeling, inhibitory-circuit proteostasis / excitability, or turnover-resistant persistence / candidate tag substrate.

Read cargo-routing papers through an explicit route-family split

The archive front door also still had one remaining compression inside the maintenance lane. The current primary literature does not support reading cargo-routing evidence as one generic trafficking background. Park et al. (2006) and Correia et al. (2008) are postsynaptic AMPAR / recycling-endosome delivery routes. Uchida et al. (2014) and Wong et al. (2024) are transport-path gating or local vesicle-confinement routes. Nakayama et al. (2017), Liau et al. (2023), and Espadas et al. (2024) are dendritic / synaptic RNA-cargo organization routes. de Queiroz et al. (2025) is an axonal RNA-localization route required for long-term memory, and Aiken & Holzbaur (2024) is a presynaptic cargo-delivery / pausing route in human neurons. Therefore, this archive no longer lets one cargo paper stand in for whole-neuron delivery correctness, one generic RNA-transport controller, or proof that the right receptors, RNA cargoes, or presynaptic components reached the right branch, spine, or bouton. The safe reading now has to name whether the paper advances postsynaptic receptor delivery, transport-path gating / local vesicle confinement, dendritic or synaptic RNA-cargo organization, axonal RNA localization, or presynaptic cargo retention / pausing.

Do not merge the maintenance-state frontier with the human-observability frontier

One remaining archive weakness was that fast year-order reading could still compress two different ladders into one 2025-2026 frontier. The current primary literature does not support that shortcut. Hadzibegovic et al. (2025), Terceros et al. (2026), Dewa et al. (2025), and Bukalo et al. (2026) sharpen local causal maintenance-state dependence, whereas Lucchetti et al. (2025), Hirschler et al. (2025), and Dagum et al. (2026) sharpen bounded living-human proxy observability. These papers do not share species, spatial unit, or inferential object. The date rule also matters in practice: Nature lists Terceros et al. as Published: 26 November 2025 while the citation line is Nature volume 649, pages 1254-1263 (2026); Dewa et al. is Published: 15 October 2025 with issue date 04 December 2025; Dagum et al. is Published: 27 January 2026; and Bukalo et al. is Published: 11 February 2026. If the archive mixes online-publication year with issue-year citation or lets adjacent dates stand in for one ladder, chronology itself begins to create a false compression. On this page, readers therefore have to identify which ladder moved before using the year cards as a frontier sketch.

Read thermodynamic papers as route-family claims

Lynn et al. (2021), de la Fuente et al. (2023), Nartallo-Kaluarachchi et al. (2025), and Ishihara & Shimazaki (2025) do not report one shared thermodynamic object. They use different state definitions, timescales, and estimator families, while Epp et al. (2025) shows that energetic language still needs physiology-side grounding because BOLD changes can oppose oxygen-metabolism changes. But route-family labels alone are still too weak. Martínez et al. (2019), Hartich & Godec (2024), Martínez et al. (2024), Blom et al. (2024), and Baiesi et al. (2024) show that reverse-transition support, coarse-grained memory order, and partial-observation burden can materially change whether a reported irreversibility number is even interpretable. Poudel et al. (2024) and Metzen et al. (2024) then show that operational stability is another separate burden, and Chen et al. (2025) shows that strong temporal coupling across EEG-PET-MRI still does not guarantee one shared spatial or physiological object. On this site, thermodynamic papers therefore remain an auxiliary physical-grounding route until route-family disclosure, reverse-transition / memory-order audit, operational-stability audit, and physiology-side grounding are all explicit.

2025-2026 technical-only shortlist

The remaining weakness after adding the broader priority route was speed. Technical readers could still lose time once the page dropped back into mixed year-order cards. The shortlist below is the minimum front door if you want only the strongest 2025-2026 technology / natural-science routes before touching the broader archive.

Read this first Anchor sources What gets stronger directly here What still must not be claimed
EEG foundation-model governance Kostas et al. (2021), Jiang et al. (2024), Lee et al. (2025), EEG Challenge 2025 leaderboard, EEG-FM-Bench (2025), PRISM (2026) Pretraining can improve low-label transfer, but the same sources also show that corpus composition, adaptation regime, split construction, inference-stage rules, and benchmark implementation can materially move the ranking itself. Do not read a top leaderboard rank or a larger model as if subject-invariant, site-robust EEG decoding were already solved.
Language-decode neural-contribution split Tang et al. (2023), Défossez et al. (2023), d'Ascoli et al. (2025), Ye et al. (2025) The split becomes concrete between within-subject semantic reconstruction, fixed-segment retrieval, known-onset word decoding, and prompt-conditioned generation. The common gain is not one solved brain-to-text meter but a more explicit neural-contribution audit under different scaffolds. Do not collapse these papers into unrestricted thought reading, prompt-free language recovery, or subject-independent stable decoding.
Field-formation visibility wall Ahlfors et al. (2010), Ahlfors et al. (2010), Goldenholz et al. (2009), Piastra et al. (2021) These papers make the upstream constraint explicit: scalp observability already depends on source orientation, source extent, anatomy, cancellation, and head-model detail before any inverse solver is run. Do not read direct validation, dense sensors, or a better inverse method as if the target source class had already been fully visible at the sensors.
Destructive ultrastructure audit Lu et al. (2023), Shapson-Coe et al. (2024), Dorkenwald et al. (2024), MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) The route distinction becomes concrete on the destructive side: preservation route, local surgical-fragment scope, sequential same-brain registration, and proofreading burden materially change what a nanoscale or petascale paper means. Do not read these papers as if live native-state capture, same-time whole-brain state measurement, or finished error-free whole-brain connectomics were already solved.
Human in vivo observability ladder Johansen et al. (2024), Lucchetti et al. (2025), Ren et al. (2015), Ren et al. (2017), Guo et al. (2024), Kaiser et al. (2026), Karkouri et al. (2026), Li et al. (2025), Morgan et al. (2024), Chung et al. (2025), Zhao et al. (2020), Petitclerc et al. (2021), Anderson et al. (2022), Wu et al. (2026), Petitclerc et al. (2026), Villemagne et al. (2022), Villemagne et al. (2022), Tyacke et al. (2018), Hiraoka et al. (2025), Mesfin et al. (2026), Matsuoka et al. (2026), Livingston et al. (2022), Best et al. (2026), Fultz et al. (2019), Kim, Huang, & Liu (2025), Eide et al. (2023), Hirschler et al. (2025), Dagum et al. (2026) The route distinction becomes concrete on the living-human side: regional synaptic-density PET, five-metabolite 1H-MRSI similarity, high-resolution 1H-MRSI metabolite-distribution mapping, 31P metabolite / pH balance, 31P MT exchange-flux, 31P NAD-content mapping, localized functional 31P NAD-dynamics, deuterium metabolite-mapping / absolute quantification, deuterium kinetic-rate imaging plus explicit dose / time-point / repeatability burden, plus BBB water-exchange, tracer-specific BBB transport, choroid-plexus perfusion / blood-to-CSF transport / DCE water cycling / apparent BCSFB exchange / simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB exchange, astrocyte PET with SMBT-1 route-role slices for first-in-human validation, AD-context, brain quantification, and whole-body biodistribution, SL25.1188 simplified-quantification / severity-conditioned MAO-B, and I2BS slices, macroscopic CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, intrathecal tracer retention / CSF-to-blood clearance, human CSF-mobility MRI, and model-based overnight biomarker efflux each raise different in vivo observability classes, calibrator roles, and route burdens. Do not collapse these papers into one progress bar, treat them as same-subject whole-brain hidden-state closure, or read energetic / astrocyte-related proxy rows as direct identification of the active glial supplier, fuel class, transport route, or neuronal sink.
State-continuity bridge Lu et al. (2023), Bosch et al. (2022), MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025), Egger et al. (2024) The bridge problem becomes concrete: preservation route, landmark recovery, sequential same-brain registration, and cross-day regime change can be named and audited instead of hidden behind same-subject wording. Do not read same-subject, same-brain, or repeated-live wording as same-state evidence without an explicit bridge-validation rung.
Neurovascular / BBB route-card split Bell et al. (2010), Kisler et al. (2020), Pandey et al. (2023), Mai-Morente et al. (2025), Padrela et al. (2025), Chung et al. (2025) The split becomes concrete between controller-side pericyte / BBB biology and macro human BBB permeability or exchange proxy routes, so vascular support is no longer safe to compress into one nuisance bucket. Do not read these papers as one direct human meter of local neurovascular maintenance control or as solved support-state closure.
Shared extracellular / electrical-state split Galarreta & Hestrin (1999), Anastassiou et al. (2011), Graydon et al. (2014), Kilb et al. (2006), Xie et al. (2013), Voldsbekk et al. (2020), Feld et al. (2026) The split becomes concrete between gap-junction coupling, ephaptic field effects, extracellular-space geometry / diffusion barriers / osmotic regime, and bounded human diffusion-MRI or perturbation clues, so synchrony or spillover papers are no longer safe to compress into one electrical-state route. Do not read these papers as one direct whole-brain meter of the current shared extracellular / electrical state or as a solved human route to local extracellular geometry and inhibitory driving force.
Neuromodulatory route-card split Reimer et al. (2016), Lohani et al. (2022), Neyhart et al. (2024), Hansen et al. (2022), Wong et al. (2013), Erritzoe et al. (2020) The split becomes concrete between mixed arousal proxy, local transmitter sensing, regional receptor / transporter prior, exogenous occupancy PET, and challenge-linked displacement / release-sensitive PET. Do not read these papers as one direct meter of the current whole-brain neuromodulatory state or as interchangeable evidence about the same transmitter object.
Excitability / perturbation split Hadzibegovic et al. (2025), Benoit et al. (2025), Hengen et al. (2016), Tallman et al. (2025), Huber et al. (2013), Kuhn et al. (2016), Zrenner et al. (2018), Khatri et al. (2025), Fehér et al. (2026), Alfonsa et al. (2025) These papers make the split concrete between intrinsic-excitability allocation, AIS / channel-state plasticity, homeostatic set-point / recovery control, bounded human excitability / sleep-homeostasis perturbation proxies, and ionic / chloride gating. Do not read them as one direct whole-brain maintenance-state meter, one route-free controller measurement, or proof that human perturbation windows already identify the relevant controller family.
RNA / phospho / proteostasis / cargo split Shi et al. (2018), Peterson et al. (2025), Vierra et al. (2023), Chalatsi et al. (2026), Thomas et al. (2025), de Queiroz et al. (2025), Aiken & Holzbaur (2024) These anchors make the latent molecular split explicit between m6A-dependent translation control, RNA-editing-dependent homeostatic routing, compartmentalized second-messenger / signalosome control, tag-timescale proteostasis including autophagy-linked inhibitory-circuit control and turnover-resistant persistence, and cargo-routing from axonal RNA localization to presynaptic cargo pausing in human neurons. Do not demote them back to generic support chemistry or pretend that human proxy-rich rows elsewhere have already closed current RNA, phospho, proteostatic, or bouton-local cargo state.
ECM / PNN gate split Alexander et al. (2025), Mehak et al. (2025) These papers make the matrix-side split concrete between cell-type-specific CA2-versus-PV memory-support roles and age-linked rescue of ECM / PNN gating, so matrix evidence is no longer one interchangeable plasticity-background row. Do not read ECM / PNN papers as one current whole-brain gate-state meter, one common plasticity-support variable, or a solved human maintenance readout.
Bioenergetic / glial substrate-routing split Vishwanath et al. (2026), Suzuki et al. (2011), Silva et al. (2022), Pavlowsky et al. (2025), Greda et al. (2025) These papers split mitochondrial-efflux-controlled neuronal metabolism from astrocyte-to-neuron lactate transfer, ketone-body support, astrocyte fatty-acid oxidation, and apoE / sortilin-linked lipid routing. Do not compress them into one energy-support variable or let macro human energetic proxies stand in for direct supplier-fuel-sink routing truth.
Neurovascular / immune / astrocyte split Bell et al. (2010), Kisler et al. (2020), Pandey et al. (2023), Swissa et al. (2024), Mai-Morente et al. (2025), Kim et al. (2025), Dewa et al. (2025), Bukalo et al. (2026) These papers make the remaining maintenance-side split concrete between pericyte controller causality, neurovascular coupling dependence, activity-linked BBB modulation, capillary support for memory-related function, clearance / immune-controller support, meningeal-lymphatics-microglia regulation, and astrocyte multiday trace / neural-representation support. Do not read them as one vascular-or-glial support bucket, one human immune-state truth row, or a direct whole-brain maintenance-state measurement.
Source-imaging route split: family / physics / validation board Luria et al. (2024), Tong et al. (2025), Feng et al. (2025), Vorwerk et al. (2024), Mikulan et al. (2020), Hao et al. (2025) These papers now strengthen narrower routes: focal posterior support, sparse debiased inference, extended-source uncertainty maps, forward-model / conductivity sensitivity audit, and named focal or clinical validation boards. They make the target object and operating regime more explicit rather than turning source imaging into one solver-independent truth meter. Do not read them as one generic ESI upgrade, one shared uncertainty object, a solver-independent anatomy truth, or a validation board that transfers automatically across focal, sparse, extended, and spontaneous regimes.
Invasive communication / transfer frontier Willett et al. (2023), Littlejohn et al. (2025), Wairagkar et al. (2025), Singh et al. (2025) Task-limited speech and communication subsystems can be pushed much farther than the older non-invasive decode literature suggested, and cross-subject transfer can now improve phoneme decoding under sparse or variable coverage. Do not translate communication success or transfer-ready phoneme decoding into WBE, durable identity transfer, free conversation, or low-recalibration long-term autonomy.
Thermodynamic route-family split Nartallo-Kaluarachchi et al. (2025), Ishihara & Shimazaki (2025), Epp et al. (2025) Recent papers make the split concrete between graph-based irreversibility, model-based entropy flow, and physiology-side oxygen-metabolism calibration, but they also force a second split between papers with versus without explicit reverse-transition / finite-data audit and stability / nuisance audit. Do not read them as one shared thermodynamic scale, direct dissipation readout, a pre-validated operational metric, or a front-door WBE acceptance condition.
Read source-imaging papers only after a visibility check

The archive is still too easy to overread if a reader sees a strong source-localization or direct-validation paper and silently assumes the relevant source class was already visible at the scalp. The upstream literature does not support that shortcut. Ahlfors et al. (2010) showed strong orientation dependence, Ahlfors et al. (2010) showed surface cancellation from extended sources, Goldenholz et al. (2009) showed that source extent and anatomy move detectability, and Piastra et al. (2021) showed that EEG / MEG sensitivity depends on head-model detail including CSF. On this site, field formation is therefore read as its own route before inverse-solver or validation papers are promoted.

Read inverse-family source-imaging papers as different objects, not one better ESI line

One more compression remained in the archive front door itself. The current primary literature does not support reading inverse-family progress as one shared truth scale. Luria et al. (2024) expose posterior support and alternative focal configurations, Tong et al. (2025) expose debiased estimation and inference for sparse spatial-temporal sources, and Feng et al. (2025) expose extended-source uncertainty and extent reconstruction. Upstream physics remains separate: Vorwerk et al. (2024) show that tissue-conductivity uncertainty can shift reconstructed depth and location, especially for quasi-tangential sources. Validation boards remain separate too: Mikulan et al. (2020) provide known-stimulation ground truth, while Hao et al. (2025) provide a simultaneous HD-EEG / SEEG clinical operating regime whose accuracy still depends on source depth, spike power, and waveform class. Therefore, this archive now asks readers to keep source regime / target object, uncertainty object, forward-model burden, and named validation board separate before any source-imaging paper is promoted to a stronger anatomical claim.

Read neuromodulatory papers as several different human routes

This archive also needed one more split to match the current public reading rules. Reimer et al. (2016) is a mixed pupil-linked arousal route, Lohani et al. (2022) and Neyhart et al. (2024) are local acetylcholine sensing routes, Hansen et al. (2022) and Goulas et al. (2021) are receptor / transporter atlas priors, Wong et al. (2013) is occupancy PET, and Koepp et al. (1998) plus Erritzoe et al. (2020) are challenge-linked displacement routes. They do not constrain one common current-state object, so this archive now surfaces them as a separate route-family split instead of leaving them buried under generic `human observability`.

Read neurovascular / BBB evidence as a separate maintenance-side route

The literature route also needed a maintenance-side correction that chronology alone could not show. Bell et al. (2010), Kisler et al. (2020), Pandey et al. (2023), Swissa et al. (2024), and Mai-Morente et al. (2025) do not report one generic vascular nuisance or clearance variable. They split into pericyte controller causality, neurovascular coupling dependence, activity-linked BBB modulation, and capillary support for memory-related function. Meanwhile, Padrela et al. (2025) and Chung et al. (2025) are important because they raise a human BBB permeability / exchange proxy route, but they still remain macro permeability routes rather than direct readouts of cell-specific neurovascular maintenance control. On this site, neurovascular / BBB evidence is therefore read beside maintenance-state family-split papers, not as a solved transfer audit and not as one common human state meter.

Read sleep replay papers as route-family claims, not as one overnight-memory row

The archive still had one missing maintenance-side split. The current primary literature does not support reading sleep replay or TMR papers as if a cue, an oscillation change, and an overnight memory difference already described one common mechanism. Ngo et al. (2013) established a phase-locked slow-oscillation stimulation route, Whitmore et al. (2022) showed that a TMR benefit depends on ample and undisturbed slow-wave sleep, Baxter et al. (2023) showed that oscillation gains can occur without extra motor-memory gain, Geva-Sagiv et al. (2023) showed an intracranial hippocampal-prefrontal synchrony intervention route, Schreiner et al. (2024) showed a spindle-locked ripple route, Whitmore et al. (2024) showed that sleep disruption does not affect all memory-age regimes equally, Jourde et al. (2025) showed that spindle-targeted auditory stimulation can either amplify sigma or truncate the spindle depending on timing, Duan et al. (2025) showed item-level electrophysiological variability in human consolidation, Deng et al. (2025) showed a time-windowed NREM physiology gate, and Shin et al. (2025) showed a difficulty-conditioned personalized TMR route. Therefore, on this page, readers now have to keep phase-locked stimulation, sleep-integrity burden, intracranial synchrony intervention, spindle-locked ripple evidence, spindle-targeted perturbation physiology, NREM time window, and memory-selection / age dependence separate before talking about replay-coupling progress.

Read SV2A / synaptic-density PET as several separate questions

One more compression still remained inside the living-human lane. The primary literature does not support reading SV2A / synaptic-density PET as one solved route. Naganawa et al. (2024) constrained a tracer-specific quantification route for 18F-SynVesT-1, Johansen et al. (2024) built a healthy-human atlas, Matuskey et al. (2025) gave a disease contrast in autistic adults, Shatalina et al. (2024) linked task switching and switch cost to [11C]UCB-J in healthy adults, Smart et al. (2021) showed that brief visual activation raises delivery but not binding, and Holmes et al. (2022) found no measurable overall SV2A change 24 h after ketamine despite symptom reduction. Those papers do not answer the same question. Therefore, on this site, a paper that says SV2A PET is read only as the named slice it actually strengthens, not as a direct readout of current synaptic efficacy or momentary synaptic state.

Do not let same-brain scaffold papers erase the presynaptic release-machinery ceiling

One more front-door correction was still missing. The current primary literature does not support reading same-brain structure-function linkage or regional SV2A density as if they already fixed release-site number, docked-vesicle architecture, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, or current release competence. Molnár et al. (2016) showed multiple docked vesicles and multi-vesicular release at human synapses, Sakamoto et al. (2018) showed that Munc13-1 assemblies set independent release sites, Dürst et al. (2022) showed that vesicular release probability sets individual synaptic strength, and Emperador-Melero et al. (2024) showed that CaV2 clustering and vesicle priming are mediated by distinct active-zone machineries. Holler et al. (2021) and Mittermaier et al. (2024) strengthen same-brain scaffold and membrane-state gating, not a direct active-zone readout, while Smart et al. (2021) showed that brief activation altered delivery without changing [11C]UCB-J binding. Therefore, on this site, same-brain functional connectomics and SV2A PET stay below the presynaptic release-machinery ceiling unless a paper directly measures that release machinery itself.

If you only want the shortest technical path

Read one row from the shortlist above, follow its linked next page, and postpone the mixed year cards until you need neighboring papers around that anchor. This prevents law, philosophy, and broad cultural-theory entries from setting the first impression of the technical frontier.

In the 2026-03 technology route, evidence class is fixed first

The weakness that needed another correction was that it was still difficult to see what a paper directly strengthened when readers looked only at Badge and Year order. For example, Luria et al. (2024), Tong et al. (2025), and Feng et al. (2025) strengthen inverse-family-specific source objects: focal posterior support, sparse debiased inference, and extended-source uncertainty are not one common estimator output. Vorwerk et al. (2024) then strengthen a separate forward-model / conductivity sensitivity route, because the paper sharpens how upstream physics moves the reconstructed source rather than which inverse family should win by default. Mikulan et al. (2020), Unnwongse et al. (2023), and Hao et al. (2025) strengthen named local direct-validation boards, whereas Tang et al. (2023), d'Ascoli et al. (2025), Willett et al. (2023), Littlejohn et al. (2025), and the same-session side of Wairagkar et al. (2025) strengthen task-limited system performance. Card et al. (2024) and Singh et al. (2025) then strengthen a separate decoder-initialization route: they change how quickly a useful speech decoder can be brought online, but not the question of long-horizon validity after deployment. By contrast, Pun et al. (2024) plus the fixed-decoder analysis in Wairagkar et al. (2025) strengthen fixed-decoder durability / instability audit by showing that drift and decline are measurable objects in their own right, while Karpowicz et al. (2025) and Wilson et al. (2025) strengthen adaptive stabilization / recalibration: they audit how much performance can be restored after drift, when rescue is needed, and what recalibration burden remains. Also, Kostas et al. (2021), Jiang et al. (2024), Lee et al. (2025), the official EEG Challenge leaderboard, Xiong et al. (2025), and Lahiri et al. (2026) strengthen qualified representation learning plus benchmark-governance evidence rather than source truth: they sharpen how corpus composition, adaptation, split construction, inference budget, and benchmark inconsistency move what a transfer score means. Also, Penny et al. (2004), Rosa et al. (2012), Jafarian et al. (2020), Frässle et al. (2021), Jafarian et al. (2024), and Wu et al. (2024) strengthen model-conditioned causal inference by fixing candidate-model dependence, observation-model assumptions, scalability, and reliability windows rather than by proving unique causal wiring. In the human-measurement lane, Lu et al. (2023), Shapson-Coe et al. (2024), Dorkenwald et al. (2024), and MICrONS Consortium et al. (2025) strengthen a destructive-structure route class by fixing preservation, registration, throughput, and proofreading burdens, whereas Johansen et al. (2024), Lucchetti et al. (2025), Ren et al. (2015), Li et al. (2025), Baadsvik et al. (2024), Morgan et al. (2024), Chung et al. (2025), Villemagne et al. (2022), Matsuoka et al. (2026), Best et al. (2026), Tyacke et al. (2018), Biechele et al. (2023), Wijesinghe et al. (2025), Horti et al. (2022), Ogata et al. (2025), Yan et al. (2025), Hirschler et al. (2025), and Dagum et al. (2026) strengthen living-human observability classes under materially different proxy ceilings, route burdens, and safe calibrator roles: Johansen constrains regional synaptic-density atlas space, Lucchetti constrains five-metabolite parcel similarity, Ren constrains energetic balance, Li constrains deuterium energetic-rate imaging, Baadsvik constrains quantity-defined myelin burden, Morgan constrains BBB water exchange, Chung constrains tracer-specific BBB transport, Villemagne, Matsuoka, Best, and Tyacke constrain tracer-family-separated target-defined astrocyte routes, Biechele and Wijesinghe constrain TSPO disease-context / validation-bounded neuroimmune reading, Horti and Ogata constrain CSF1R route-setting PET, Yan constrains COX-2 enzyme-defined PET, and Hirschler plus Dagum constrain bounded clearance-support physiology rather than one common state meter. Also, Molnár et al. (2016), Sakamoto et al. (2018), Dürst et al. (2022), Emperador-Melero et al. (2024), Holler et al. (2021), and Mittermaier et al. (2024) sharpen a separate presynaptic release-machinery / same-brain scaffold ceiling: synapse count, same-brain structure-function linkage, and regional SV2A density do not yet fix release-site number, docked-vesicle architecture, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, or current release competence. Also, Pernet et al. (2019), Burns et al. (2024), Kothe et al. (2025), Jayaram & Barachant (2018), Blum & Hardt (2015), and Roelofs et al. (2019) strengthen reproducibility, synchronization, and benchmark governance. Furthermore, Bell et al. (2010), Kisler et al. (2020), Pandey et al. (2023), Swissa et al. (2024), Mai-Morente et al. (2025), Gouwens et al. (2021), Hengen et al. (2016), Xu et al. (2024), Looser et al. (2024), Terceros et al. (2026), Cahill et al. (2024), Williamson et al. (2025), Dewa et al. (2025), and Bukalo et al. (2026) push up the question of what still remains as a latent state or omitted mechanism, including neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support that stays outside connectome-only reading. Finally, Lynn et al. (2021), de la Fuente et al. (2023), Nartallo-Kaluarachchi et al. (2025), and Ishihara & Shimazaki (2025) do not strengthen one shared thermodynamic measurement; they strengthen different route families for time-asymmetry or entropy-flow estimation, while Epp et al. (2025) separately tests whether energetic language is even grounded on the physiology side. Therefore, on this page, we divide at least the following route classes along the technology / natural-science reading line.

evidence class Typical examples Getting stronger directly here Things I can't say yet
direct validator / causal calibration Mikulan 2020, Unnwongse 2023, Hao 2025 Location properization, error sources, coverage boundary, and stimulus condition dependency. Not whole-brain ground truth or general uniqueness recovery.
task-limited system demonstration Tang 2023, Défossez 2023, d'Ascoli 2025, Ye 2025, Willett 2023, Littlejohn 2025, Wairagkar 2025 Task-conditioned language decode, prompt-conditioned generation, phoneme-sequence decoding, or closed-loop communication performance for a specific scaffold and interface. It is not unrestricted thought reading, prompt-free internal-state recovery, whole-brain emulation, or identity continuity.
decoder initialization / transfer Card 2024, Singh 2025 How quickly a useful invasive speech decoder can be brought online under a named calibration or transfer regime. It is not durable stability, zero-maintenance autonomy, subject-general everyday speech, or fixed-decoder validity after deployment.
fixed-decoder durability / instability audit Pun 2024, Wairagkar 2025 Fixed-decoder interval, degradation curve, instability metrics, and the window over which the original interface visibly breaks under a stated task and body-state regime. It is not evidence that rescue is solved, that drift can be ignored, that slow internal-milieu matching was solved, or that the system is already deployable across tasks, interfaces, and users.
adaptive stabilization / recalibration Karpowicz 2025, Wilson 2025 Alignment-based rescue, unsupervised recalibration route, and recovery burden for longer use after drift has appeared. It is not evidence of no drift, zero-maintenance autonomy, same-state continuity, or task-general deployment across interfaces and users.
foundation model / pretraining / benchmark-governance Kostas 2021, Jiang 2024, Lee 2025, EEG Challenge 2025, Xiong 2025, Lahiri 2026 Representation-learning gains under heterogeneous corpora, plus operational evidence that benchmark design, split randomness, adaptation amount, and inference budget are themselves part of the result. It is not source truth, portable transfer by default, or a settled capability ranking across tasks, sites, and deployment regimes.
model-conditioned causal hypothesis / effective connectivity Penny 2004, Rosa 2012, Jafarian 2020, Frässle 2021, Jafarian 2024, Wu 2024 Candidate-model comparison, observation-model disclosure, tractability, and reliability under matched conditions. It does not directly establish discovered causal wiring, a unique mechanism, or portability across tasks, sites, or scanners.
dataset / benchmark / standard / toolchain Pernet 2019, Burns 2024, Kothe 2025, Jayaram & Barachant 2018 Reusability, synchronization, split discipline, comparability, and operational governance. It is not direct evidence of mechanical truth or biological sufficiency.
destructive-structure audit Lu 2023, Bosch 2022, Shapson-Coe 2024, Dorkenwald 2024, MICrONS 2025, Ding 2025, Gamlin 2025 What destructive ultrastructure can directly strengthen when route burdens are disclosed: local ex vivo structural scaffold, sequential same-brain structure-function linkage, morphology-bridged label transfer, and explicit preservation / registration / proofreading constraints. It is not live native-state capture, same-time whole-brain state measurement, direct transcriptomic truth in the EM volume, current synaptic-state readout, current presynaptic release-machinery / active-zone state, or a solved local twin.
observability-class advance / human in vivo proxy ladder Johansen 2024, Lucchetti 2025, Guo 2025, Ren 2015, Ren 2017, Guo 2024, Kaiser 2026, Karkouri 2026, Li 2025, Ahmadian 2025, Bøgh 2024, van Blooijs 2023, Baadsvik 2024, Genc 2025, Galbusera 2025, Colaes 2026, Morgan 2024, Chung 2025, Villemagne 2022, Villemagne 2022, Tyacke 2018, Hiraoka 2025, Mesfin 2026, Biechele 2023, Wijesinghe 2025, Horti 2022, Ogata 2025, Yan 2025, Fultz 2019, Kim, Huang, & Liu 2025, Lim 2025, Yoo 2025, Eide 2023, Hirschler 2025, Dagum 2026 What living humans can directly observe or approximate at each measurement class: regional synaptic-density PET under a named tracer / quantification / atlas / disease / task / activation / intervention slice, five-metabolite 1H-MRSI biochemical similarity, high-resolution 1H-MRSI metabolite-distribution mapping, 31P metabolite / pH balance, 31P MT exchange-flux, 31P NAD-content mapping, localized functional 31P NAD-dynamics, deuterium metabolite-mapping / absolute quantification, deuterium kinetic-rate imaging, plus named dose / time-point / repeatability burdens for deuterium operation, tract-speed plus quantity-defined myelin / oligodendrocyte proxy families with an internal route split, BBB water-exchange MRI, tracer-specific BBB PET transport, choroid-plexus perfusion / blood-to-CSF transport / DCE water cycling / apparent BCSFB exchange / simultaneous BBB-versus-BCSFB exchange, astrocyte PET with SMBT-1 route-role slices for first-in-human validation, AD-context, brain quantification, and whole-body biodistribution, SL25.1188 simplified-quantification / severity-conditioned MAO-B, and I2BS slices, neuroimmune PET with TSPO disease-context / validation-bounded, CSF1R route-setting, and COX-2 enzyme-defined slices, macroscopic CSF oscillation, parenchyma-CSF water exchange, respiration-conditioned CSF net flow, exercise-conditioned contrast influx / meningeal-lymphatic flow, intrathecal tracer retention / CSF-to-blood clearance, human CSF-mobility MRI, and model-based overnight biomarker efflux. It is not a direct whole-brain readout of current hidden state. Even inside SV2A PET, quantification route, healthy baseline, disease contrast, task association, activation null, and intervention response carry different ceilings before any current-state language is allowed, and none of those slices directly closes release-site number, docked-vesicle architecture, active-zone nanostructure / priming-site assembly, or current release competence; the same applies to astrocyte PET and neuroimmune PET, where first-in-human validation, AD-spectrum contrast, brain quantification, whole-body biodistribution, TSPO disease-context interpretation, CSF1R route-setting, and COX-2 enzyme-defined blockade answer different questions.
mechanistic boundary / hidden-state evidence Molnár 2016, Sakamoto 2018, Dürst 2022, Emperador-Melero 2024, Bell 2010, Kisler 2020, Pandey 2023, Swissa 2024, Mai-Morente 2025, Gouwens 2021, Hengen 2016, Xu 2024, Looser 2024, Terceros 2026, Cahill 2024, Williamson 2025, Dewa 2025, Bukalo 2026 Degeneracy of excitability, presynaptic release-site organization / active-zone nanostructure, sleep-dependent recovery, neurovascular-unit / BBB / pericyte support, myelin / oligodendrocyte timing support, transcriptional stabilization, astrocyte multiday trace, and connectome-constrained dynamics still remain outside cell-type and graph description alone. This itself does not provide direct validation or a complete implementation. It is a class that indicates what is still missing and what augmentations are needed.
sleep replay / replay-coupling route family Ngo 2013, Whitmore 2022, Baxter 2023, Geva-Sagiv 2023, Schreiner 2024, Whitmore 2024, Jourde 2025, Duan 2025, Deng 2025, Shin 2025 What current sleep-consolidation papers directly strengthen when route burdens are named: phase-locked slow-oscillation stimulation, sleep-integrity-dependent TMR, oscillation gain without guaranteed memory gain, intracranial hippocampal-prefrontal synchrony intervention, spindle-locked ripple-linked reactivation, spindle-targeted perturbation physiology, item-level variability, NREM time-window constraints, and difficulty- or memory-age-conditioned effects. It is not one generic replay meter, not proof that cue delivery or sigma increase already identified the responsible consolidation event, not route-free evidence that oscillation gain equals memory gain, and not a portable whole-brain readout of the controller that preserved a given memory item.
auxiliary thermodynamic / irreversibility route family Lynn 2021, de la Fuente 2023, Nartallo-Kaluarachchi 2025, Ishihara & Shimazaki 2025, Epp 2025 Route-dependent lower bounds, time-asymmetry indices, model-based entropy-flow estimates, plus reverse-transition / finite-data, memory-order, stability, and physiology-side grounding audits for energetic language. It is not one common entropy-production scale, not direct microscopic dissipation, not an automatically reusable operational metric, and not a portable WBE gate.
review / synthesis technical review, survey, benchmark synthesis Sort by field map, keywords, and issues. If you want to base a strong conclusion, you need to go back to the primary research.
context / philosophy / law / culture Law, metaphysics, ethics, cultural analysis, and work/fiction studies You can understand the surrounding context of the topic. It will not be used as a basis for the feasibility or validation frontier of technology or natural science.
Language demos are not one evidence bucket

On this site, a language-facing demo is not promoted from fluent output alone. Tang, Défossez, d'Ascoli, and Ye strengthen different non-invasive language routes, while Willett, Littlejohn, Wairagkar, Card, Singh, Pun, Karpowicz, and Wilson strengthen different invasive communication, initialization, durability, or rescue routes. The safe reading always asks first which timing / segmentation regime, which prior scaffold, which brain-minus-prior baseline, and which subject route or adaptation burden produced the score. That is why the archive now sends language papers directly to the Verification: Neural Contribution Card instead of letting `brain-to-text` stand as a sufficient summary.

Foundation-model evidence is not one source-status lane

This archive now keeps one extra split visible for EEG foundation-model reading. Jiang et al. (2024) and Lee et al. (2025) are treated as peer-reviewed route papers. The official EEG Challenge homepage, rules, submission page, and leaderboard are treated as the current benchmark-object and postmortem layer. Han et al. (2025), Chen et al. (2025), El Ouahidi et al. (2025), Ma et al. (2026), Xiong et al. (2025), Liu et al. (2026), and Lahiri et al. (2026) are treated as exploratory preprint extensions or benchmark-warning analyses. That means a mixed source list is not read here as one homogeneous capability ladder: route claim, benchmark object, and exploratory warning stay separate until an accepted paper or an independent rerun closes the gap. The broader rule is Wiki: How to read source types, status labels, and evidence classes.

Reading order on this page

First decide on the evidence class, then decide on the technical route, and finally go down to the year-order card. In particular, if you see a task-limited demo, read one or more mechanistic boundary / hidden-state evidences and one or more observability-class advances on the same issue. If you see an effective-connectivity paper, read the candidate model space, observation assumptions, validation, and reliability window before reading the graph itself. If you see a thermodynamic paper, first answer which route family it belongs to and whether physiology-side grounding was measured separately. That combination prevents the common misreading that a good output, plus some new human proxy, a dense directed graph, or an irreversibility score already closes the hidden state or causal mechanism. Although chronology is useful as a historical sketch, it is not a table that directly ranks technology frontiers.

Where to see What do we know
Badge and publisher You can see which type of entrance the paper was picked up from. However, the source alone does not automatically determine the strength of the content.
evidence class Identify whether the paper is direct validation, system demo, destructive-structure audit, observability-class advance, mechanistic boundary, standard/benchmark, review, or context. For technology and natural sciences, look at this column before chronological order.
Japanese translation summary You can grasp what the paper is saying in the shortest possible time. If you are not interested, you can stop here.
5 points arrangement You can briefly compare ``what kind of paper it is,'' ``what's new,'' and ``how was it confirmed?''
Original Abstract and DOI You can go back to the original document and check if your understanding is correct. It is a premise that you must return to this point for important papers.
Theme you want to read first Recommended views
I want to see only the primary evidence of technology and natural science first First, enter the priority route of Technology/Natural Sciences and narrow it down to decode / neuroprosthesis / ESI / effective connectivity / multimodal / destructive ultrastructure / human in vivo observability / maintenance-state / thermodynamic route family instead of chronological order.
I want to read tractography papers without overreading `connectome` language Start with Thomas 2014, Schilling 2018, Schilling 2020, Gajwani 2023, McMaster 2025, Bramati 2026, and Zhu 2025, then separate endpoint access, bundle priors, graph construction, protocol dependence, and calibration route before reading any graph as structural truth. The safe ceiling on this site is macro pathway prior / targeted bundle-hypothesis route, not `the connectome itself`.
I want to see what humans can actually observe now Start with Lu 2023 plus Shapson-Coe 2024 if you want the destructive local-structure route, or start with Johansen 2024; Lucchetti 2025 plus Guo 2025 if you want to split 1H-MRSI similarity from high-resolution metabolite distribution; Ren 2015 / Ren 2017 / Guo 2024 / Kaiser 2026 if you want the 31P family split; Karkouri 2026 / Li 2025 / Ahmadian 2025 / Bøgh 2024 if you want deuterium absolute-versus-kinetic routes plus dose / repeatability burden; Morgan 2024 / Chung 2025; Villemagne 2022 / Villemagne 2022 / Tyacke 2018 / Hiraoka 2025 / Mesfin 2026; Fultz 2019; Kim, Huang, & Liu 2025; Eide 2023; Hirschler 2025; and Dagum 2026 if you want the broader living-human in vivo proxy ladder. Then read both which hidden states each route still leaves latent and how specialized the route still is.
I want to see brain-to-text / language decode Start with Tang 2023, Défossez 2023, d'Ascoli 2025, and Ye 2025, then separate timing / segmentation regime, candidate bank or prompt budget, and brain-minus-prior baselines before reading any output as neural reconstruction. The shortest safety rule is the Neural Contribution Card.
I want to read EEG foundation models / pretraining safely Start with the peer-reviewed route papers Kostas 2021, Jiang 2024, and Lee 2025, then read the current official EEG Challenge rules, submission page, and leaderboard as the benchmark-object layer, and only then use Xiong 2025, Liu 2026, Lahiri 2026, and related arXiv papers as exploratory comparison or warning layers. After that, read corpus overlap, harmonization, adaptation regime, split construction, inference-time budget, and source-status separately before reading any ranking as frontier progress.
I want to see invasive closed loop communication Start with Willett 2023, Littlejohn 2025, and Wairagkar 2025, then check latency, silence / abstention, and whether the gain is same-session streaming output rather than a claim about initialization or durability.
I want to read decoder initialization / transfer safely Start with Card 2024 and Singh 2025, then separate rapid same-subject calibration from cross-subject transfer-assisted initialization, and keep both apart from fixed-decoder durability.
I want to read long-horizon BCI durability / recalibration Start with Pun 2024, the fixed-decoder analysis in Wairagkar 2025, Karpowicz 2025, and Wilson 2025, then separate fixed-decoder interval, instability audit, alignment or recalibration route, recovery burden, and task / interface transfer ceiling before calling the system durable.
I want to read effective connectivity / DCM safely Start with Penny 2004, Rosa 2012, Jafarian 2020, Frässle 2021, Jafarian 2024, and Wu 2024, then read candidate model space, observation assumptions, reliability window, and abstention boundary separately.
I want to see the multimodal ceiling Start with Kothe 2025, Vafaii 2024, Chen 2025, Bolt 2025, Epp 2025, Amiri 2023, and Manasova 2026, then separate synchronization infrastructure, shared-vs-specific component evidence, hemodynamic / metabolic quantity bridge, and bundle robustness under complete-case or cross-centre disagreement before reading any multimodal gain as one solved biological variable.
I want to read source imaging / hidden-state limits safely Start with Luria 2024, Tong 2025, Feng 2025, Vorwerk 2024, Mikulan 2020, Unnwongse 2023, and Hao 2025, then separate field-formation visibility, source regime / target object, uncertainty object, forward-model / conductivity route, and named validation board before pairing any source-imaging paper with the maintenance-state papers on what still remains latent.
I want to read thermodynamic / irreversibility papers safely Start with Lynn 2021, de la Fuente 2023, Nartallo-Kaluarachchi 2025, Ishihara & Shimazaki 2025, and Epp 2025, then separate route family, state definition, coarse-graining / timescale, and physiology-side grounding before reading energetic language strongly.
Use
Judgment when looking at the card Read deeply on the spot Can be postponed
Is it directly related to your point? This is when the issue you are currently pursuing is clearly stated in the summary or five-point summary. Even if the title seems similar, if you read the summary and find that the topic is peripheral, you can leave it for later.
Is it worth going back to the original paper This is when the method, evaluation, and limitations are specific and can be used as the basis for other pages. If it is similar to a general discussion or statement of opinion and does not directly connect to the verification conditions, it is sufficient to understand the list.
Are you making judgments only by BadgeBadge as an entry point, and be sure to look at the summary and DOI before deciding on importance. Even if the publication source seems to be strong, if the explanation of the relationship to the issue is weak, it is safer not to get too deep into it.
Does it have a role on this page This is when there is a possibility that it can be returned to Bibliography Map or Research Note. It is okay to hold off on items that may be interesting individually but are difficult to connect to the overall point of the site.

1. With abstracts

2025

Scopus

The Ruling on Technological Interventions to Extend Human Life and Delay the Signs of Aging Under Islamic Jurisprudence

2025-06-30
Hammad H.A.A.K.

Considering rulings on technological intervention aimed at extending human lifespan and delaying aging based on Islamic jurisprudence.

Unlike existing legal reviews, we specifically classified the three categories of biological, electronic, and virtual in detail, and showed the differences in rulings for each method.

The focus is on three technological approaches: genetic improvement of the immune system, replacement of artificial replacement parts, and digitalization of brain information.

By combining literature research and deductive legal analysis, we evaluate the acceptability of each method in light of Sharia principles.

Further research is needed on actual medical implementation, ethical risks, and long-term social effects, and this study merely presents a theoretical framework.

Original Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become widespread in recent times for various aspects , including medical aspects. Some of which aims to extend human life and delay the signs of aging. The research problem of this study lies in clarifying the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence on the intervention of technology in the human body. The objectives of this research is to discuss the technological interventions aimed at extending human life and delaying the signs of aging, and to explore the jurisprudential ruling. The research adopted a descriptive and deductive research approach to obtain the research objectives. Regarding technological interventions aimed at prolonging human life and delaying the signs of aging, the study divided these interventions into three approaches. The first is the biological method that is based on advances in genetics and biotechnology and focuses on enhancing the immune system genetically. The study concluded that such method is impermissible. The second method is the electronic method which is based on advances in nanotechnology and robotics, and focuses on various parts of the body with artificial substitutes, such as artificial skin. The study found that the ruling on such method varies depending on the situation. As such, replacing damaged human body parts with prosthetic limbs is regarded permissible since it falls under the type of medical treatment. Moreover, regarding the technological interventions to enhance human capabilities, it is found that an in-depth study is required to explore such an issue. The third method is the virtual method known as mind uploading which involves digitizing the information contained in the brain -such as memories, and information- and then transferring it to a machine. From the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence, this method is considered permissible; however, it must not cause any harm to the brain.
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Scopus

The multiplicity objection against uploading optimism

2025-06-01
Weber C.

This paper examines the multiplicity objection to the optimistic position of "mind upload," in which the mind is simulated on a computer and transferred to electronic hardware.

Conventional objections to multiplicity concluded that it is "unviable," but this paper is different in that it reevaluates the optimistic argument and presents a counterargument.

The discussion will focus on the philosophical and technical premises of whether it is possible for multiple digital consciousnesses to exist.

The main methods are conceptual analysis and logical reasoning, and are based on philosophical discussion rather than experimental verification.

The issues of "whether multiplicity is possible" and how to define "continuity of individuals" are unresolved, and need to be reconsidered as actual upload technology progresses.

Original Abstract: Abstract Could we transfer you from your biological substrate to an electronic hardware by simulating your brain on a computer? The answer to this question divides optimists and pessimists about mind uploading. Optimists believe that you can genuinely survive the transition; pessimists think that surviving mind uploading is impossible. An influential argument against uploading optimism is the multiplicity objection. In a nutshell, the objection is as follows: If uploading optimism were true, it should be possible to create not only one, but multiple digital versions of you. However, you cannot literally become many. Hence, you cannot survive even a single instance of uploading, and optimism about uploading is misguided. In this paper, I will first spell out the multiplicity objection in detail and then provide a two-pronged defence against the objection. First, uploading pessimists cannot establish that uploading optimism has the contentious implication. Second, it is in fact plausible to think that we could become multiple distinct persons. Optimists’ hope for a digital afterlife is therefore not thwarted by the prospect of multiplicity.
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arXiv

Thief of Truth: VR comics about the relationship between AI and humans

2025-05-28T00:33:55Z
Joonhyung Bae

- A first-person VR comic about a human with an uploaded consciousness and an AI searching for the meaning of life.

- Combining eye control and controller interaction to simultaneously improve immersion and accessibility.

- Interaction design using VR gaze control and hand tracking.

- Evaluate immersion and operability quantitatively and qualitatively through user experiments.

- Highly dependent on hardware and physical strain caused by long-term use.

Original Abstract: Thief of Truth is a first-person perspective Virtual Reality (VR) comic that explores the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence (AI). The work tells the story of a mind-uploaded human being reborn as a new subject while interacting with an AI that is looking for the meaning of life. In order to experiment with the expandability of VR comics, the work was produced by focusing on three problems. First, the comic is designed using the viewing control effect of VR. Second, through VR controller-based interaction, the player's immersion in the work is increased. Third, a method for increasing accessibility to VR comics was devised. This work aims to present an example of an experimental attempt in VR Comics.
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Scopus

‘Through Valley of the Shadow of Death’: Death In-Between and Betwixt “Life After Life” in Mind Uploading Immortality

2025-05-01
Kaunda C.J.

2. What is the difference from previous research? - Views death not as a mere end, but as a transitional stage between existences, and proposes a perspective that accepts liminality.

4. How to verify? - Based on a theoretical framework and philosophical analysis, the concept of liminality is examined through a case study.

Original Abstract: This article engages the concept of death as a revolutionary transformation within the contexts of mind uploading (MU) and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s theology of the Omega Point. The focus is not on the Omega Point itself as a conceptual endpoint, nor on what becomes of consciousness once it has been successfully uploaded into a digital substrate. To grasp the meaning of “death” within the context of MU, the article employs the notion of liminal speculative imagination to analyze death amid the liminality of biological mortality and digital immortality. It argues that death is more than just the end of life but rather as a transitional phase between different states of being. It contends that this liminal gap between life forms is an inherent aspect of existence that cannot be eliminated at a fundamental level. Instead of seeking to overcome death, the article suggests embracing the transformative nature of this liminality. In this view, death is seen as a natural and unavoidable part of life, serving as a mediator or catalyst for transitions into new forms of existence. Rather than focusing solely on achieving immortality, the article advocates for utilizing technology to facilitate evolution and advancement. By acknowledging the role of death in the process of transformation, particularly within the context of transhumanism, the article proposes that embracing liminality can lead to new possibilities for human evolution. This includes the potential emergence of transhuman life forms, such as those enabled by MU technologies.
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Scopus

Selective Optimism about Mind-Uploading

2025-02-01
Weber C.

The selectively optimistic position regarding mind uploading that ``gradual replacement can survive, but scanning and copying cannot''.

Going beyond the existing optimistic/pessimistic extreme positions, we argue for the different viability of each upload method, and justify it using metaphysical comparisons.

Using the difference in "immanent causation", a metaphysical distinction is made between gradual replacement and scan & copy.

First, we theoretically deny metaphysical equivalence, and then use logical reasoning to verify whether the causal structure of gradual replacement supports the viability.

Further discussion is needed on whether the actual upload technology matches the theoretical model, the definition of "survival" and the ethical consequences.

Original Abstract: Optimists about mind-uploading believe that we can survive uploading. Pessimists about mind-uploading, on the other hand, believe that we cannot survive uploading. An under-explored middle ground between the two is a selective form of optimism, which claims that we can survive some forms of uploading, such as gradual replacement uploading, but not others, such as scan-and-copy uploading. Is selective optimism about uploading a rational stance? In this paper I argue that the answer is yes. The paper has a negative and a positive part. First, I defuse an objection against selective optimism from Wiley and Koene (2016). Wiley and Koene argue that gradual replacement uploading is metaphysically equivalent to scanand-copy uploading, and hence optimism about the former and pessimism about the latter is unfounded. I show that Wiley and Koene's case for the supposed metaphysical equivalence fails, since there is a significant metaphysical contrast between the two types of uploading involving immanent causation. In the second part of the paper, I present a positive case for selective optimism about gradual uploading building on this contrast in immanent causation.
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Scopus

Differentiating Human Enhancement and Transhumanism: Better or Perfect?

2025-01-01
García-Barranquero P.

A study that conceptually distinguishes between human enhancement and transhumanism and provides ethical guidelines for the adoption of future technologies.

While existing discussions often confuse the two, the difference is that the author has clearly attempted to differentiate between the two axes of ``the concept of enhancement'' and ``body value.''

A framework for evaluating the speed and ethical impact of technological progress through the contrast between "exponential enhancement" (H+) and "incremental enhancement" (HE).

By combining literature review and conceptual analysis, we constructed a theoretical framework and examined its applicability in light of actual technical cases.

This research is limited to a conceptual framework and lacks empirical data and concrete policy recommendations. Further research is needed on the social acceptability of future technologies and their compatibility with the legal system.

Original Abstract: Philosophical concern for the human future is more important today than ever because of the ethical, social, and technological challenges we face—Human Enhancement (HE) and Transhumanism (H+) are some of the theories that are involved with the future of our species. These two positions tend to be confused, but we contend that a distinction can and should be made between the two approaches. To perform this explanation, we propose two axes of differentiation: the concept of enhancement itself and the valuation of the biological body. In this context, H+ begins with a disregard for the body and seeks to transcend the human condition with exponential enhancements, while HE advocates a gradual enhancement within our current limits. Clarifying this contrast between H+ and HE is vital for the responsible adoption of future technologies, enabling informed decisions about which scientific promises are viable and worthy of support, and which should be reconsidered.
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2024

Scopus

Thoughts on mind uploading and the autobiographical voice of cyborgs

2024-07-01
López T.A.

A study that discusses the decentralization of identity in a modern world where body neutrality has collapsed through mind transfer and the autobiographical voice of cyborgs.

A critical reinterpretation of Moravec-Cuzweil's theory, focusing on the point that transfer to an artificial body generates multiple identities from the same brain.

A mechanism for decentralizing identity using mind transfer to an artificial body (e.g., android Vina48) and the autobiographical voice emitted by the artificial organ.

Conceptual analysis based on literature comparison and theoretical reasoning. No empirical data is shown; refer to existing cyborg research (written by Clark).

Practical validity of body neutrality, ethical challenges of identity integration in artificial bodies, and lack of demonstrability are cited as major limitations.

Original Abstract: In this article, I aim to unmask the metaphor of mind transplantation, because the bodily neutrality on which it is founded is becoming increasingly untenable. In the first section, I present Moravec's and Kurzweil's conception of mind transplantation in order to show that the same kind of mind cannot exist in bodies with different properties. On the contrary, transplanting the mind into an artificial body opens the possibility of decentralizing identity, because it becomes possible to mix different identities that come from the same brain. To make this point, I draw on the android Bina48. In the second section, I explore the decentralization of identity through the autobiographical voice of the artificial organs of the cybernetic hybrid, based on the arguments set out in Andy Clark's Natural-Born Cyborgs. In that section, I explain what the narrative sense of self consists in.
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Personal ontology: Mystery and its consequences

2024-03-14
Brenner A.

2. **What is the difference from previous research? ** Introducing a parody method that treats the existing theories of soul and material theory in a confrontational manner, while reversing the arguments between the two.

4. **How ​​to verify? ** Theory verification that combines structural analysis of metaphysical arguments and philosophical reasoning about after-death scenarios.

Original Abstract: What are we? Are we, for example, souls, organisms, brains, or something else? In this book, Andrew Brenner argues that there are principled obstacles to our discovering the answer to this fundamental metaphysical question. The main competing accounts of personal ontology hold that we are either souls (or composites of soul and body), or we are composite physical objects of some sort, but, as Brenner shows, arguments for either of these options can be parodied and transformed into their opposites. Brenner also examines arguments for and against the existence of the self, offers a detailed discussion of the metaphysics of several afterlife scenarios - resurrection, reincarnation, and mind uploading -- and considers whether agnosticism with respect to personal ontology should lead us to agnosticism with respect to the possibility of life after death.
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Spiritual Cyborg: Virtual Embodiment From Secular Ambiguities to Ontological Opportunities

2024-03-01
Farman A.

Research that redefines the relationship between body and mind and the experience of "reality" through virtual embodiment brought about by AI and robot technology.

While existing research views the virtual as something outside the body, this research presents an "ontological opportunity" to bring the virtual back into the body and transform it at the same time.

Comparing three types of digital platforms: VR, games, and mind upload, and examining the paradigm shift of embodiment and disembodiment.

Comparatively analyze cases from Europe, the United States, and Japan, and qualitatively and quantitatively measure changes in user experience and mental meaning.

The issue is whether the virtual experience really "returns" to the body, and what kind of ethical and social impact this transformation will have on the consistency of empirical data and theoretical frameworks.

Original Abstract: Abstract AI and robotic technologies are reshaping embodied experience, specifically experiences of the relation of mind to body as well as experiences of “reality,” which necessitate the qualifiers augmented or virtual. Such technologies have allowed people to infuse the expanding assortment of technological experiences with spiritual meaning, thus expanding the ambit of spirituality and religiosity; at the same time, the technology has provided many researchers with occasion to argue that all spiritual and virtual experience—including of soul and deities—may only just ever be in the brain, putting the virtual back into the body but not without changing each. We are comparing three sites—VR, gaming, and transhuman mind uploading in Europe, the US, and Japan—not as sites of confusion but of “ontological opportunity,” that is, occasions for remaking experiences of embodiment and disembodiment, and changing the relation between reality and virtuality.
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A free mind cannot be digitally transferred

2024-02-01
Génova G.

A paper that argues that it is theoretically impossible to digitally transfer the mind as a finite bit string.

Unlike the existing mind upload theory, we apply the prior proof that computers cannot be self-determining, and show that it is impossible to digitally represent a free mind.

Using the fact that bit strings automatically become executable programs using the "stored program" paradigm, we argue that transfer is not possible based on the lack of freedom of computers.

Strictly set definitions and conditions, cite existing computer theory (especially proofs regarding self-determination), and arrive at a conclusion through logical reasoning.

Philosophical validity of the interpretation that "freedom = self-determination," implications for the possibility of mind transfer through non-digital means, and the difficulty of empirically verifying whether converting into a bit string is actually impossible.

Original Abstract: AbstractThe digital transfer of the mind to a computer system (i.e., mind uploading) requires representing the mind as a finite sequence of bits (1s and 0s). The classic “stored-program computer” paradigm, in turn, implies the equivalence between program and data, so that the sequence of bits themselves can be interpreted as a program, which will be algorithmically executed in the receiving device. Now, according to a previous proof, on which this paper is based, a computational or algorithmic machine, however complex, cannot be free (in the sense of ‘self-determined’). Consequently, a finite sequence of bits cannot adequately represent a free mind and, therefore, a free mind cannot be digitally transferred, quod erat demonstrandum. The impossibility of making this transfer, as demonstrated here, should be a concern especially for those who wish to achieve it. Since we intend this to be a rigorous demonstration, we must give precise definitions and conditions of validity. The most important part of the paper is devoted to explaining the meaning and reasonableness of these definitions and conditions (for example that being truly free means being self-determined). Special attention is paid, also, to the philosophical implications of the demonstration. Finally, this thesis is distinguished from other closely related issues (such as other possible technological difficulties to “discretize” the mind; or, whether it is possible to transfer the mind from one material support to another one in a non-digital way).
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Upload, Cyber-Spirituality and the Quest for Immortality in Contemporary Science-Fiction Film and Television

2024-01-01
Magerstädt S.

- A study that overviews the latest themes in science fiction movies and television that pursue immortality through cyber spirituality and mind uploading.

- Analyzes the conventional discussion on death and immortality by linking it to the specific technology of mind migration in cyberspace.

- "Mind Upload" - A virtualization technology that transfers an individual's consciousness into the digital realm and makes it exist permanently.

- A text analysis of representative science fiction works (movies and television) and a comparative study of the frequency of appearance of themes and expression methods.

- Although digital immortality raises ethical issues, the extent to which it is actually achievable and its social acceptability remain ambiguous.

Original Abstract: As a genre, science fiction has long played with the idea of all-powerful virtual beings and explored notions of transcendence through technological advancements. It has also been at the forefront of exploring our anxieties and hopes regarding new technologies and the ethical and moral consequences of scientific advancement, raising deeply philosophical and theological concerns about an age-old question, namely: what makes us distinct as human beings and what lies beyond our own existence? This article aims to provide an overview of recent themes that have emerged in science fiction film and television, especially with regard to extending our lives beyond their natural biological age. As the article will outline, these ideas generally appear in notions of cyborgization or mind uploading into cyberspace. Both indicate a deeply human desire to avoid death, and the films and shows discussed in this article offer a range of different ideas on this. As we will see, the final case study, the Amazon Prime television show Upload (2020–), brings both of these elements together, touching on a broad range of ideas about cyber-spirituality along the way. The article concludes that although many shows raise interesting questions about the ethical challenges inherent in transhumanist fantasies of mind uploading, they ultimately remain ambiguous in their critique of the dream of digital immortality.
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2023

Scopus

TRANSHUMANISTIC ERA – NEW POSTHUMAN, NEW POSSIBILITIES, NEW MORALITY

2023-12-18
Šehić D.

A philosophical paper proposing a posthuman and new moral system based on transhumanism.

While existing research on transhumanism deals mainly with technical aspects, it is differentiated in that it integrates and discusses moral and philosophical shifts and new paradigms.

Two major technologies, cyborgization and mind uploading, provide a path to posthuman realization.

We mainly use philosophical arguments and conceptual analysis, and evaluate the validity of claims by comparing them with manifestos and ethical theories.

Although the focus is on moral conflict with Christian anthropology, the limitation is that actual social acceptability and technological risks are not sufficiently considered.

Original Abstract: The paper about the transhumanistic era evaluates the new postulates of the philosophical concept of transhumanism and the new possibilities it offers by creating a new posthuman being with a newly constructed moral system. Through three thematic units, the work reflects on transhumanistic ideas and the new paradigm of man, which is realized by means of technological and scientific achievements.The first thematic unit discusses the philosophical idea of transhumanism and the philosophical shift made by transhumanist anthropology, especially those proclaimed in transhumanist manifestos. The second part provides an understanding of the means used by technological transhumanism starting by cyborgization and mind uploading. The third part looks at the new moral system brought by the new paradigm of posthuman ethics, which opposes the moral values of Christian anthropology.
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BIOMOTHERS AND TECHNOBODIES: JEANETTE WINTERSON’S FRANKISSSTEIN: A LOVE STORY AS THE TECHNOCRITICAL HYBRIDIZATION OF TRANS- AND POSTHUMANISM

2023-12-01
Raso A.

Literary technocritical research that hybridizes trans-posthumanism.

Monstrocity is positioned as a justification for new life and love, and it relativizes the conventional rigid theory of nature.

Verifying the risks and possibilities of co-posting of artificial intelligence, mind uploading, sex robots, and biotechnology.

Technocritical analysis that integrates literary interpretation and the theoretical framework of trans/posthumanism and material feminism.

As the boundaries between humans and non-human substances become blurred, the objectivity of ethical and aesthetic evaluations and their applicability to practice are issues.

Original Abstract: Abstract In Frankissstein: A Love Story, the British writer Jeanette Winterson reclaims the epistemological value of the literary interpretation of existential questions around the posthuman. By retelling Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Winterson assesses, both ethically and aesthetically, the consequences of artificial intelligence for traditional conceptions of gender, life (re)production, and the commodification of bodily desires, as well as their fusion at the intersection of technology and art. With the methodological support of recent studies on trans-/posthumanism and material/trans-corporeal feminism(s), this article will attempt to show how, by revindicating monstrosity as the legitimization of new forms of life and love, Winterson hybridizes trans- and posthumanist polarities and relativizes the rigidity of the debate around the de- and rematerialization of nature in the face of practices such as mind uploading, the mass production of sex robots, and enhancing biotechnologies, through a technocritical examination of the risks and possibilities of the com-posting of human and nonhuman matter.
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Scopus

Mind uploading in artificial intelligence

2023-10-16
Wissinger J.

Technology (mind upload) that attempts to completely reproduce an individual's brain functions on a computer.

A comprehensive approach that goes beyond traditional brain models and simulations in that it simultaneously mimics brain structure and function.

High-precision imaging that accurately captures the brain and construction of an artificial neural network with equivalent expressive power.

Actually input brain data and compare and verify whether the artificial network shows equivalent cognitive and behavioral responses.

Social and technical issues remain, such as ethical concerns, the difficulty of data acquisition, and the enormous amount of computational resources required.

Original Abstract: Mind uploading is the futurist idea of emulating all brain processes of an individual on a computer. Progress towards achieving this technology is currently limited by society's capability to study the human brain and the development of complex artificial neural networks capable of emulating the brain's architecture. The goal of this chapter is to provide a brief history of both categories, discuss the progress made, and note the roadblocks hindering future research. Then, by examining the roadblocks of neuroscience and artificial intelligence together, this chapter will outline a way to overcome their respective limitations by using the other field's strengths.
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THE MACHINE IN THE GHOST: TRANSHUMANISM AND THE ONTOLOGY OF INFORMATION: with Finley I. Lawson, “The Science and Religion Forum Discuss Information and Reality: Questions for Religions and Science”; Niels Henrik Gregersen, “‘The God with Clay’: The Idea of Deep Incarnation and the Informational Universe,” Michael Burdett and King-Ho Leung, “The Machine in the Ghost: Transhumanism and the Ontology of Information”; Marius Dorobantu and Fraser Watts, “Spiritual Intelligence: Processing Different Information or Processing Information Differently?”; Matthew Kuan Johnson and Rachel Siow Robertson, “A Co-Liberatory Framework for Big Data”; Peter M. Phillips, “Digital Theology and a Potential Theological Approach to a Metaphysics of Information”; and Andrew Jackson, “Peacocke Prize Essay—Towards an Eastern Orthodox Contemplation of Evolution: Maximus the Confessor's Vision of the Phylogenetic Logoi.”

2023-09-01
Burdett M.

Research that criticizes the information ontology advocated by transhumanism and presents an alternative information ontology.

While existing transhumanism research mainly deals with technical aspects, this paper reexamines information ontology from a religious and philosophical perspective.

Through virtual practices such as mind uploading, we will clarify the mechanism by which information space is regarded as a supernatural realm.

Contrast and evaluate the information ontology of transhumanism and the proposed alternative ontology using literature comparison and conceptual analysis.

While discussing the extent to which alternative ontology will affect actual technological development and the possibility of blurring the boundary between the supernatural and nature, he points out the difficulty of empirical verification.

Original Abstract: An ontology of information belies our common intuitions about reality today and animates and governs both explicit scholarly study in philosophy and the sciences as well as the ideologies that are growing out of them. Transhumanism is one such technoscientific ideology that holds to a very specific ontology of information which need not be the only one on offer. This article argues that the transhumanist ontology of information exhibits gnostic and docetic religious overtones in it and that it devalues physical existence. At the same time, despite claiming a rejection of supernature, hypothetical transhumanist practices (such as mind‐uploading) posit the infosphere as a kind of supernatural realm that is often set in opposition to the natural world. This article presents a critique of transhumanist conceptions of information and offers an alternative ontology of information that more adequately accounts for the distinction between the natural and supernatural as well as the integrity of the physical world.
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Harry Potter and the Aims of Transhumanism: A Magical Critique of Technological Immortality

2023-08-01
Dunne J.A.

Through Harry Potter, we present a magical critique of the immortality and ultra-longevity pursued by transhumanism.

A new interpretation of the point that death is the central theme throughout the series, emphasizing the analog nature of magic and technology.

Denies the three paths of bioengineering, cyborg engineering, and mind uploading from a magical perspective, and affirms Harry's choice.

Using literature analysis and specific scenes in the text (dealing with spells, items, and the dead), we extracted negative positions against the three transhuman paths.

There remains a debate regarding the possibility that the Christian perspective may be limited to some readers and the scope of application of the analogy of magic = technology.

Original Abstract: Harry Potter can be read as a critique of transhumanist aims of achieving immortality or radical superlongevity. The salience of transhumanism for Harry Potter is seen through the way that magic functions as an analogue to technology, and through the centrality of death throughout the series. Transhumanists pursue radical superlongevity by three pathways: bioengineering, cyborg engineering, and mind uploading. Each of these pathways, when applied heuristically to the magical pursuit of immortality in Harry Potter, receives explicit rejection in the text alongside the commendation of Harry’s non-pursuit of it. By way of analogy, Harry Potter’s perspective on death and immortality, which is informed in part by the Christian tradition, offers readers a critique of certain transhumanist aims along the lines of other ethical and religious analyses of the movement, and speaks to the deep desires and longings lying at their heart.
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“To be or not to be” − transhumanist vision of the future according to Victor Pelevin (based on the literary work Transhumanism Inc.)

2023-01-01
Pańkowska E.

A vision of a transhumanist future in which the brain permanently survives in a container and consciousness is transferred to virtual reality, as depicted in Pelevin's novel "Transhumanism Inc."

While existing research on transhumanism focuses on technological aspects, Pelevin's work is characterized by a unique social critique that combines a literary perspective with supernatural elements (vampires).

The three concepts of "cyber immortality," "formal freedom," and "mind upload" are the keys to redefining the brain and consciousness across physical and virtual boundaries.

A critical method that intersects textual analysis of literary works with philosophical and ethical discussions regarding transhumanism.

It points out problems such as the feasibility of implementing technology in practice, ethical risks, and social inequality brought about by the restriction of the wealthy, and develops the discussion within the scope of literary imagination.

Original Abstract: Victor Pelevin has established a reputation as one of the most interesting, controversial, and mysterious contemporary Russian writers. He is recognized as one of the leading representatives of Russian postmodernism. Pelevin is also known as an attentive and critical observer of the surrounding reality. He is sometimes described as a deep thinker, a prophet, and a visionary. Pelevin’s literary work entitled Transhumanism Inc. (2021) is the subject of the analysis in this paper. The purpose of the article is to show and discuss Pelevin’s transhumanist vision of the future in which an isolated brain (removed from its host) will be able to survive indefinitely in a specialized container (‘a jar’) and human consciousness will exist within a virtual reality. However, access to this ‘jar dimension’ will be exclusive, limited only to the wealthy, leaders, and world oligarchs. However, it is the vampires, as supernatural creatures, who will be the real architects of the world order. This paper focuses on the analysis of the selected aspects of Pelevin’s literary work − mainly those which can be viewed in connection with the assumptions of the transhumanist project. Special attention is paid to the idea of cyber immortality, the concept of morphological freedom, and mind uploading.
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Exploring moral perception and mind uploading in Kazuo Ishiguro's ‘Klara and the Sun': ethical-aesthetic perspectives on identity attribution in artificial intelligence

2023-01-01
Echarte Alonso L.E.

A study that analyzes the controversy over moral perception and personal identity regarding mind uploading from a literary and aesthetic perspective through ``Clara and the Sun.''

While existing ethics and AI research mainly deals with technical aspects, it is unique in that it connects literary works and narrativist hypotheses to create a conceptual synthesis.

Using conceptual synthesis as a methodology, we theoretically link the interaction between moral perception and personal identity.

Conceptual verification through textual analysis of literary works and comparison with Charles Taylor's narrativist theory.

The impossibility of instilling moral perception in machines and the ethical and philosophical limits of the possibility of self-awareness and resistance by alternative robots.

Original Abstract: Literature wields a profound influence on our cognitive processes, shaping not only how we think but also what we think about. Aesthetic experiences, in particular, seem to foster a positive impact on our ability to comprehend complexity. This influence underscores the significant role of literature in the exploration of value learning and ethics research, because evaluating any decision-making requires seeking the widest possible frame of reference. Furthermore, literature plays a pivotal role in enriching our perception of both the external world and our inner selves, thereby fostering a heightened sense of ethical discernment. In this paper, I explore this last idea by examining Kazuo Ishiguro'sKlara and the Sun. In this enquiry, I reveal connections between two crucial controversies surrounding mind uploading: the epistemological debate centered on the theory of moral perception and the ontological inquiry into personal identity. Researching the intersection of these two big issues guide my decision to employ conceptual synthesis as the methodological framework. Besides, I will argue that the ideas of moral perception and personal identity that emerges in Ishiguro's dystopia are in tune with the narrativist hypothesis of Charles Taylor. In my conclusions, I defend that prospect of replacing a human being with a robot hinges on the challenge of instilling the machine with a unique moral perception. This remains an elusive goal, perhaps perpetually so, due to the inherent impossibility of objectifying a machine capable of apprehending and processing the non-objective qualities of matter. Furthermore, even if we were able to create such a machine, it would likely resist assuming a substitutive role, as it would quickly discover and appreciate its own existence. Finally, I ponder the implications of mistaking a simulation of human for an authentic replica, namely, an unsuccessful and unnoticed attempt at mind uploading—loneliness.
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From Living Souls to Software Selves: The Movements of Enchantment through Western Metaphysics

2023-01-01
Doede R.

A framework that historically explains the feasibility of transhumanism called mind uploading through the changes in Western metaphysics.

Unlike existing philosophical theories of technology, it continuously traces the conceptual transformation from Via Modena to the information revolution and connects it with the modern upload perspective.

The point of extracting the "living identity" as a digital software pattern, separating it from the body and uploading it to a non-biodegradable platform.

Combine historical document analysis and philosophical discussion to show the causal relationship of conceptual transformation.

Ethical and empirical questions remain, including criticism of the mechanical metaphor and whether uploading truly becomes "re-enchantment."

Original Abstract: Abstract Robert Doede’s chapter on the intellectual history of technology will provide the interpretive framework for the remaining chapters in this volume. In his contribution, he delineates some of the key conceptual shifts—the late medieval via moderna, early modern science’s mechanical metaphors for the universe, the late modern information revolution—in the history of the West that have crucially contributed to the plausibility of the contemporary transhumanist project of engineering mind-uploading. Doede explains how it is that contemporary scientists, philosophers, and intelligent laypersons find it easy, indeed almost natural, to take seriously that they are beings whose living identities are capable of being captured as digital software patterns, thereby decoupled from their vital bodies, and then uploaded onto a non-biodegradable substrate where they can carry on their lives in perpetuity; and why such a vision is, despite its mechanistic grammar, one fundamentally characterized as a striving for the re-enchantment of the world.
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Final Avatar. Around the Concept of Cyberimmortality

2023-01-01
Kuczyński B.

Cyber ​​immortality is a school of transhumanism that aims to digitize human consciousness and make it exist permanently.

While conventional avatar research mainly deals with expressions in virtual space, this paper focuses on the ultimate transformation of the ``post-digital human'' into reality.

Digital transfer of the mind (mind uploading) and the permanent preservation and reproducibility of the information that constitutes the self are the keys.

Conduct a comparative analysis with existing transhumanism theory, and use case studies and scenario analysis regarding ethics and social impact.

Ethical and legal issues remain, such as the definition of humanity, the protection of personal information, and the widening of social inequality, and there are many unresolved technical and philosophical issues regarding its feasibility.

Original Abstract: The article focuses on avatarization within the transhumanist concept of cyberimmortalism. Avatarization is discussed as the process through which a human being becomes present in digital form, whose final stage, according to some transhumanists and futurists, is the emergence of a digital post-human. The purpose of the article is to characterize cyberimmortalism against the background of other transhumanist currents and to discuss the challenges associated with the idea of mind transfer, including anthropological, metaphysical, and social challenges.
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Transhumanism, Embodied Cognition, and Psychiatry

2023-01-01
Fuchs T.

This paper reconsiders psychiatry from the perspective of embodied cognition, in which human life and consciousness are inseparably linked through the body.

In contrast to traditional brain-centered drug and stimulation treatments, we propose an integrated approach that emphasizes the body and relationships.

Utilizes the mechanism by which processes and structures are cyclically transformed through embodied dialogic experiences (physical and social interactions).

Through practical clinical cases and long-term follow-up studies, we will observe and measure the effects of embodied experiences on neural structures.

It is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the experience of embodiment, and it is necessary to consider the influence of individual differences and cultural background.

Original Abstract: Abstract In this chapter, Thomas Fuchs argues, from a psychiatrist’s perspective and against the intrinsically mind-body-dualistic understanding of human beings advocated by transhumanists, that processes of life and processes of consciousness are inseparably linked through the living body as a whole. In the unity of the person, both aspects are intertwined: the body is alive and therefore also mindful; the mind is alive and therefore also truly embodied. Fuchs also demonstrates the importance of embodied cognition for psychiatry. This medical discipline is increasingly dominated by brain-centered research that focuses on drug treatment, deep-brain stimulation, and neuroenhancement designed only to change the person’s psyche. Fuchs argues that such an approach neglects both the embodied and relational structure of the human mind and risks rendering the patient dependent on mere technical support. Durable therapeutic changes can only be achieved through personal, i.e., embodied and interactive experiences—and these over time also influence the neuronal substrate through a circular interaction of ‘process’ and ‘structure.’
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Would you exchange your soul for immortality?—existential meaning and afterlife beliefs predict mind upload approval

2023-01-01
Laakasuo M.

Technology (mind upload) that makes it possible to digitally copy an individual's brain and mind and keep them alive forever.

Not only the relationship between fear of death and religiosity, but also the influence of existential meaning (the degree to which you feel your life is meaningful) and your view of the afterlife on moral approval of mind uploading.

Creating a new form of "life" that goes beyond physical death by reconstructing the "existential boundaries" of humans.

In a cross-sectional survey of 1,007 people, we measured fear of death, religiosity, existential meaning, and views on the afterlife, and statistically analyzed the correlation with moral approval of mind uploading.

The survey is a cross-sectional design based on self-reports, so causal relationships cannot be determined, and diversity in cultural and religious backgrounds may affect the results. Furthermore, since the actual mind uploading technology is still in its virtual stage, the social and ethical implications of its practical application are uncertain.

Original Abstract: Mind upload, or the digital copying of an individual brain and mind, could theoretically allow one to “live forever.” If such a technology became available, who would be most likely to approve of it or condemn it? Research has shown that fear of death positively predicts the moral approval of hypothetical mind upload technology, while religiosity may have the opposite effect. We build on these findings, drawing also from work on religiosity and existential mattering as predictors of perceived meaning in one’s life. In a cross-sectional study (N = 1,007), we show that existential mattering and afterlife beliefs are negatively associated with moral approval of mind upload technology: people who believe there is a soul or some form of afterlife and who also report a high level of existential mattering, are least likely to morally approve of mind upload technology. Indeed, mind uploading—if it ever becomes feasible—is a form of technology that would fundamentally redraw the existential boundaries of what it means to be human.
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Shuri in the Sea of Dudes: The Cultural Construction of the AI Engineer in Popular Film, 1920–2020

2023-01-01
Cave S.

A study that quantitatively examined gender bias and its cultural construction in movies depicting AI engineers.

While past studies have mainly dealt with individual works or small-scale samples, we provide statistical evidence using a large corpus of 142 works.

The image of AI scientists is summarized into four tropes: "hypermasculine geek," "genius," "controller of life and death," and "military involvement," which promotes the underrepresentation of women.

Measuring the appearance rate of tropes using content analysis and statistical analysis (frequency/correlation) for movies featuring AI from 1920 to 2020.

Since it is limited to the media of movies, it is not possible to show a direct causal relationship with the actual industry structure, and it is difficult to interpret changes in expression due to the historical background.

Original Abstract: Abstract This chapter aims to uncover and challenge the predominant portrayal of the AI engineer as a hypermasculine ‘alpha geek’. Taking as their starting point the aforementioned underrepresentation of women in the AI industry, they outline why cultural representations of AI scientists matter, before explaining the findings of their large quantitative study of a corpus of 142 influential films (1920–2020) containing AI. They discuss the key tropes that emerged from these films, before focusing on four key themes that are distinctly gendered and may contribute to the underrepresentation of women in the AI industry: first, the AI scientist as a ‘genius’; second, the AI scientist’s ability to gain mastery over life and death through the pursuit of ‘mind uploading’ and other forms of technological immortality; third, the association of AI with hypermasculine milieus, such as the military; and finally, the portrayal of female AI scientists as subservient or inferior to male AI scientists.
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Delineating humanistic underpinnings in the midst of posthuman evolution: A study of Hannu Rajaniemi’s Jean le Flambeur trilogy

2023-01-01
Patra I.

A study examining how the relationship between humans and posthumans is redefined through Hanu Rajaniemi's trilogy.

While existing posthuman theories tend to exclude humans, this theory differentiates itself by positioning humanity as a form of posthumanity and analyzing the interaction between the two from a multi-layered perspective.

A method that combines literary analysis and textual semiotics to extract the process of reconstructing human nature from the vocabulary and structure of a work.

Comparing the main plots, character settings, and worldview construction of the three works, we quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated how humanity changes at each stage of posthumanization.

The focus of the discussion is that the definition of posthuman is not academically unified and that the interpretation of works is highly subjective, and empirical verification requires further comparison of multiple works and research on reader reactions.

Original Abstract: This research aims to delve into the intricate and multilayered connection between humans and posthumans, as depicted in Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean le Flambeur trilogy. This Finnish American author's trilogy, consisting of The Quantum Thief (2010), The Fractal Prince (2012), and The Causal Angel (2014), paints an insightful picture of this interaction. The investigation aims to illuminate the emergence of humanity in an extremely posthuman and postsingular landscape, arguing that one must understand humanity as not entirely separate from posthumanism. Instead, humanity should be considered a specific case, or limit case, of the broader posthumanist concept. The form of humanity that arises from the boundaries of an extreme posthuman state of evolution will not mirror the pre-posthuman state; instead, it will transform into a more comprehensive, inclusive entity. The analysis of these three novels will illustrate how Rajaniemi's work does not entirely dismiss human agency. Instead, it recontextualizes and reshapes it within a dramatically different posthuman setting.
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2022

Scopus

SOUTH ASIAN TRANSHUMANIST POSTHUMAN ONTOLOGIES: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VEHICLE ART AND MIND UPLOADING IN UZMA ASLAM KHAN’S TRESPASSING

2022-06-01
Liaqat Q.

A critical study that explores the affinity between South Asian literature and Western science fiction, and interprets truck art as a metaphor for uploading consciousness.

The use of posthuman theory to interpret the literature of technologically underdeveloped regions contrasts with conventional Western-centered research.

Truck art is positioned as a symbol of "whole brain emulation" and uses non-human subjectivity as a metaphor for uploading consciousness.

Critical text analysis of motifs, symbols, and characters in literary works and comparison with transhumanism theory.

There is a lack of discussion regarding the feasibility and cultural transfer of upload technology, suggesting a gap between theory and actual technological progress.

Original Abstract: AbstractOne possible way to decolonize the posthuman field of literary criticism is to find possible stylistic and thematic affinities between the literatures from the less technologically advanced regions such as South Asia and mainstream Euro-American science fiction. This article invites and affirms alternative ways of perceiving and comprehending the transhumanist posthuman paradigms from the technologically underdeveloped world (South Asia) through a critically informed analysis of the motifs, symbols, and characters in the Pakistani writer Uzma Aslam Khan’s Anglophone novel Trespassing (2003). It argues that the nonhuman agency of truck art in Trespassing can be interpreted as a metaphor for a possible local technique for consciousness uploading. By applying the theoretical framework of transhumanist/posthumanist literary theory, this article demonstrates that the depiction of truck art in the novel can be analyzed as an analogy for the transhumanist posthuman dream of whole brain emulation.
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Scopus

RAYMOND KURZWEIL: MOURNING OR TECHNOLOGIES

2022-01-01
Annequin M.

A study that discusses Khuzweil's "desire for immortality" and his vision of mechanizing and digitalizing the body in light of Freud's grief and melancholy.

While existing transhumanism research mainly deals with technical aspects, this paper is different in that it connects personal experience and psychoanalytic theory and critically examines it.

"Mind uploading" (digitizing consciousness) and "mechanical treatment and monitoring" of the body - these are positioned as the core technologies for achieving immortality.

A textual analysis of Kuzweil's own discourse and life history will be conducted, and a comparative study will be made with Freud's theory.

Uncertainty about technological feasibility, lack of consideration to ethical and social impacts, and the perspective of viewing the body as waste are subject to ethical criticism.

Original Abstract: This article examines R. Kurzweil's proposals in light of his own life trajectory. It argues that these ideas can cast new light on Freudian remarks distinguishing mourning from melancholy. The founder of Singularity University, financed in part by Google, regularly makes spectacular claims about the imminent disruptive advance of technological progress. Although most experts agree that his assertions are highly speculative, transhumanist ideology nonetheless permeates ordinary discourse and points to a renewed relevance of eschatological questions. We examine transhumanist discourse through the prism of Kurzweil's own statements, emphasizing that his conception of human finitude, and his stated wish to defeat death, emerged after the death of his father. Kurzweil also indicates that this conception of 'immortal' life requires a particular treatment of the body, which must be monitored and managed in the hope of ultimately dispensing with it ('mind uploading'). On this point, where the body is treated as a machine or even as waste, psychopathological clinical literature also offers illuminating precedents.
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Scopus

MARK MCCLELLAND’S UPLOAD (2012): THE PERILS OF LEAVING BIOLOGY BEHIND TO ACHIEVE VIRTUAL IMMORTALITY

2022-01-01
Laguarta-Bueno C.

A science fiction novel that critically examines the relationship between virtual immortality and physicality, using mind upload as its theme.

In contrast to the existing transhumanist optimism, we adopt a critical posthumanist position that emphasizes physicality as an essential perspective.

"Upload" technology that digitizes brain information and allows it to exist permanently in virtual space.

Text analysis of the narrative structure and character description in the novel, and quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the development of themes related to physicality.

The feasibility and ethical framework of the actual uploading technology are undetermined, and the limit is that it remains an imaginary setting within the work.

Original Abstract: In recent years and, in light of the latest developments in the field of neurotechnology, some critics have claimed that mind uploading could become technically feasible in a not-too-distant future. While transhumanist critics embrace this procedure and dream of a postbiological future in which human beings possess greater cognitive, emotional, and sensorial abilities, the critical posthumanists warn of the risks inherent to the idea of leaving biology behind to lead a virtual life in cyberspace. Significantly, these warnings reverberate in some twenty-first century cultural productions such as Mark McClelland’s Upload (2012), a novel that is also representative of an emerging trend of SF novels written by tech professionals. Although the novel may seem to be at first a defense of simulated life, this work aims to prove that McClelland’s narrative choices ultimately uncover a critical posthumanist view of embodiment as an essential part of human identity.
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2021

Scopus

Anthropology of immortality: About the possibility of post-mortem continued existence and the futility of 'mind-uploading'

2021-12-20
Streubel T.

A paper examining the existence of individuals after physical death and the possibility of mind uploading from an anthropological perspective.

Existing philosophical and scientific discussions were reinterpreted using an anthropological framework, and the relationship between the body and mind was reevaluated in a cultural and social context.

``Mind upload'' = A fundamental problem in that technology that transfers whole brain information to digital media cannot actually maintain physical and mental continuity.

Conceptual analysis using theoretical reflection and philosophical discussion regarding the structure of human existence (body, society, culture) rather than concrete experiments.

Since the criteria for defining human "existence" are diverse, conclusions depend on cultural and philosophical assumptions. One point is that empirical verification is difficult, and the other is that future changes due to technological progress cannot be completely predicted.

Original Abstract: In this article, I would like to show that a life, or at least a continued existence of the subject after physical death, is by no means excluded from an anthropological point of view, whereas the continued existence of a person through the purported transfer of his or her mind onto a hard drive (mind uploading or whole brain emulation) is impossible for fundamental reasons. Both theses can be justified through reflection on the human condition.
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Scopus

Humanity should colonize space in order to survive but not with embryo space colonization

2021-08-01
Szocik K.

Embryo-level space colonization (ESC) is a concept that uses embryos to carry out long-distance migration to ensure the survival of the human species.

Conventional space colonization targets adults, but ESC is unique in that it uses embryos.

A life support system and gene stabilization technology for safely storing and transporting embryos during long-term space voyages.

Embryos will be experimentally cultured in a low-gravity, high-radiation environment, and long-term follow-up will be conducted to check for genetic mutations and developmental disorders.

Ethical concerns (handling of embryos, responsibility to future generations) and technical risks (unforeseen complications during millions of years of voyage) are the main limitations.

Original Abstract: AbstractThe embryo space colonization (ESC) concept is an interesting, very rational and quite effective way to guarantee the survival of the human species, as long as the technology is achieved and no unforeseen complications arise during even many millions of years journey to an exoplanet. Despite these formal advantages of the concept, this paper points to a number of arguments against its validity. These arguments revolve around two issues. One is to point out that while the concept of saving the Homo sapiens species is noble and should be supported, the way of saving humanity envisioned by the ESC departs from what should be understood by the concept of saving humanity through space colonization. The second issue is to draw attention to the ethical controversies that make this concept perhaps unsuitable for implementation at all. At least some of these objections do not address the concept of saving humanity by sending adult living persons on space missions.
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Scopus

Echoes down the years: Technologies of mediumship and immortality

2021-04-22
Puglionesi A.

Human-machine assembly that mediates the voices of the dead and its historical evolution.

Directly compares 19th century spiritualism and modern mind uploading, and simultaneously examines their technological and political influences.

A media-spiritual structure that commodifies individualism by separating software (mental content) and hardware (means of expression).

Analyzes audience reactions and political consequences of participatory performances by combining historical literature and contemporary technology reviews.

The strengthening of ownership, its impact on personal information privacy, and the philosophical question of whether the "self" of the dead can actually be reconstructed.

Original Abstract: AbstractThis chapter examines the history of human-machine assemblages used to speak for the dead, comparing the practices of the nineteenth-century American Spiritualist movement with those of present-day transhumanist mind-uploading. In both cases, forms of mediated communication give the dead a continuing voice in society through a participatory performance involving the medium—a person whose consciousness is suspended in a state of trance, or a set of algorithms—the deceased, and an audience. Mediumship becomes a theater in which audiences both desire and interrogate the capabilities of necro-communication technology. The chapter attends to these technologies’ implied models of selfhood, which disaggregate mental content—software—from the vehicle of its expression—hardware—in the tradition of Cartesian dualism. The chapter argues that the technologies in question inevitably structure, in concerning ways, political notions of possessive individualism, which become commoditized in the shift from human-performed mediumship to selfhood instantiated in proprietary software products.
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Scopus

Moral psychology and artificial agents (part two): The transhuman connection

2021-03-18
Laakasuo M.

Research elucidating human moral cognition and emotions towards artificial agents and transhuman technology.

Different from existing robot ethics research, we propose a new category called "artificial agents" focusing on cognitive mechanisms.

Psychic cognition (presuming the existence of a mind) and innate sexual aversion affect evaluations of robots and transhumans.

A combination of experimental psychology and questionnaire surveys to measure evaluations of robots, AI, and human augmentation technology.

The definition of "artificial agent" is ambiguous, and cultural and individual differences cannot be fully taken into consideration.

Original Abstract: Part 1 concluded by introducing the concept of the new ontological category – explaining how our cognitive machinery does not have natural and intuitive understanding of robots and AIs, unlike we have for animals, tools, and plants. Here the authors review findings in the moral psychology of robotics and transhumanism. They show that many peculiarities arise from the interaction of human cognition with robots, AIs, and human enhancement technologies. Robots are treated similarly, but not completely, like humans. Some such peculiarities are explained by mind perception mechanisms. On the other hand, it seems that transhumanistic technologies like brain implants and mind uploading are condemned, and the condemnation is motivated by our innate sexual disgust sensitivity mechanisms.
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Scopus

THE APORIAS OF TRANSHUMANISM: “LA SEGUNDA CELESTE” BY ALBERTO CHIMAL, AND SINFÍN BY MARTÍN CAPARRÓS

2021-02-26
Ilian Ţăranu I.

A critical analysis of two works that deal with the utopian theme of aiming for immortality through technology.

While existing research on transhumanism paints an optimistic picture of the future, this paper is different in that it critically illuminates the contradictions in the current view of humanity.

The key is historicization from a futuristic perspective and skepticism towards humanity, centering on ``mind upload''.

A comparative study using text analysis of literary works and a conceptual framework using Beaumont Jameson's theory.

It shows the blurring of the boundaries between utopia and dystopia and the limits of human adaptation to technology, but does not touch on actual scientific feasibility.

Original Abstract: In this article, we analyze two recent works that share a common theme: the utopia of immortality achieved through technological means, that is, mind uploading or 'uploading': the short story 'La segunda Celeste' by the Mexican writer Alberto Chimal, included in Manos de lumbre (2018), and the chronicle-like novel Sinfín (2020) by the Argentine writer Martín Caparrós. Our aim is to show that both works treat 'uploading' as a utopia in Matthew Beaumont's sense of the term, namely, a view of the historicized present from the perspective of a fantastic future, and that they reflect the contradictions of the present vision of the human more than they provide a real glimpse into an implacably opaque future. At the same time, we show how both works make visible the paradox noted by Fredric Jameson: the impossibility of distinguishing between utopia and dystopia when investigating the future. Finally, we highlight that in both texts the utopian 'upload,' one of the central goals of the transhumanist agenda, is viewed skeptically, deriving from a pessimistic vision of a subject who gains access to technology without being able to overcome human weakness and therefore fails in the attempt to become 'post-human'.
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Scopus

Is transhumanism heading towards redefinition of human being or towards Utopia?

2021-01-01
Szopa R.

Research examining the feasibility and limits of transhumanism from philosophical and technological perspectives.

It embodies the limits of material understanding and social divisions due to the spread of technology, and focuses on the indispensability of the concept of soul.

The soul concept that supports mind upload and the dissemination of cutting-edge technology necessary to realize post-humanization.

By combining philosophical discussions and technical implementation scenarios, we will simulate social division and theoretically verify the concept of the soul.

Philosophical criticism of material limitations, the feasibility of technological spread and social inequality, and the unresolved philosophical justification of the concept of soul.

Original Abstract: Transhumanism has enormous effect on temporary philosophical thought by forcing philosophers to take on many intellectual challenges. Not only philosophers deal with transhumanism but also scientists who try to create technological solutions that enable implementation of transhumanistic ideas. The question is whether all these ideas will be realized. The purpose of the article is to show that not all transhumanist aspirations can be put into practice. The first reason is that transhumanism limits human’s understanding to the material dimension (from a theological point of view). While this is understandable in the naturalistic paradigm, this approach is insufficient when it comes to all complexity of human being and for this reason tanshumanism represents too narrow a human’s understanding to be able to implement its all assumptions. The second reason is that to enable people to become posthumans the latest technologies would have to be available to everyone and this seems impossible. If so, such a situation will divide people into ordinary people and posthumans and this could lead to conflicts that transhumanists want to avoid after all. Finally, the body-mind problem is essentially limited to emergentism, which corresponds to the naturalistic paradigm. It seems, however, that without the concept of the soul it is impossible to understand who a man is, his/her identity and consciousness and this is crucial for mind uploading.
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Scopus

POSTHUMAN TRANSFORMATION IN ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN THOUGHT: BECOMING ANGELS AND DEMONS

2021-01-01
Litwa M.D.

The dual structure of "angelization" and "demonization" that connects the ethics of physical expansion and self-actualization in ancient Mediterranean thought.

In contrast to modern biotechnology-centered expansionism, it incorporates moral improvement in ancient philosophical and religious contexts.

Unification of body and soul through ethical practices and spiritual training, rather than through physical intervention such as genetic modification or prosthetic limbs.

Critical analysis through comparative study of classical texts and conceptual contrast with modern transhumanist theory.

Cultural and historical differences when applying ancient concepts to modern times, and the lack of concrete practical examples of "angelization" and "demonization."

Original Abstract: There is not just a desire but a profound human need for enhancement - the irrepressible yearning to become better than ourselves. Today, enhancement is often conceived of in terms of biotechnical intervention: genetic modification, prostheses, implants, drug therapy - even mind uploading. The theme of this book is an ancient form of enhancement: a physical upgrade that involves ethical practices of self-realization. It has been called 'angelification' - a transformation by which people become angels. The parallel process is 'daimonification', or becoming daimones. Ranging in time from Hesiod and Empedocles through Plato and Origen to Plotinus and Christian gnostics, this book explores not only how these two forms of posthuman transformation are related, but also how they connect and chasten modern visions of transhumanist enhancement which generally lack a robust account of moral improvement.
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Scopus

(The) Utopia(n) and becoming (other) in Neill Blomkamp's science-fiction trilogy: District 9 (2009), Elysium (2013) and Chappie (2015)

2021-01-01
van den Berg C.

A study that theoretically examines the relationship between utopia and generation/transformation through a science fiction trilogy.

Rather than treating utopia as a mere ideal image, it is novel in that it is analyzed from a dynamic perspective by linking it to Delizian generative theory.

Extract specific depictions of "generation" and "transformation" within the work through text and video analysis, and logically construct connections with the concept of utopia.

Using the main characters and plots of each work as case studies, we qualitatively evaluate the correlation between generation/transformation and utopian elements.

The scope of application of Deliz's framework is limited, and there is a lack of comparative studies with other genres and the real world.

Original Abstract: This article investigates the ways in which the concept of utopia and/or the utopian can be related to a Deleuzian concept of becoming and/or becoming-other. Because thematizing utopia, or alternatively problematizing the concept, is often embodied in the science-fiction genre, this study discusses director Neill Blomkamp's science-fiction trilogy for that purpose. At the level of narrative, District 9, Elysium, and Chappie each offer examples of becoming or becoming-other that can be interpreted in terms of a utopian horizon. Although the protagonist of District 9 changes, the utopia for which Wikus waits is a retrospective and static restoration of the past. And although Max changes relatively little in Elysium, through his self-sacrifice he realizes an apparent utopia for everyone, which upon reflection likewise betrays a static conception of utopia, a world that already carries the seed of dystopia in its core. Chappie appears to be the only film in the trilogy that relates Deleuze's idea of becoming to utopia as the dynamic utopian.
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2020

Scopus

From transhumanist’s morphological freedom to posthuman corporeality: Convergences and divergences

2020-10-26
Etxeberria J.R.

Compare the conceptual conflicts regarding physicality between transhumanism and posthuman philosophy, and examine examples of morphological freedom and body modification.

While existing studies mainly deal with technical aspects, this paper focuses on the relationship with the heritage of humanism and philosophical conflicts.

Body modification through cybernetic implants is the key to achieving ``morphological freedom,'' and it is important to blur the boundaries between body and machine.

We will conduct a literature review of typical body modification cases (prosthetic limbs, brain-machine interfaces, etc.) and analyze the gap between philosophical concepts and practice.

The core of the debate is the ethical concerns associated with the redefinition of identity and physicality, as well as the difference in opinion between the two camps regarding ``mental projection,'' and empirical verification is still limited.

Original Abstract: Both transhumanism and philosophical posthumanism have paid special attention to human corporeality in relation to technological advance. This article begins by pointing out how significantly the two movements differ in relation to the legacy of humanism. It then addresses the transhumanist notion of 'morphological freedom' through More, Sandberg, and Bostrom. Next, it presents paradigmatic cases of bodily modification through cybernetic implants. Finally, it problematizes questions of identity, corporeality, and the disagreement between the two currents regarding 'mind uploading'.
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Scopus

Transhumanism Without Mind Uploading and Immortality

2020-09-11
Sorgner S.L.

Transhumanism research that critically examines the premises of simulation theory and mind uploading.

It differentiates itself by rationally reconstructing the existing simulation theory and denying the possibility of uploading and immortality.

A fundamental question about the premise of treating humans as software (body = hardware).

Verifying the feasibility of uploading and immortality through logical reconstruction and philosophical discussion.

There is a lack of evidence regarding the possibility of simulation and the feasibility of upload technology, and the road to immortality is closed.

Original Abstract: Elon Musk regularly advertises for the simulation argument, stressing that he regards it as highly likely that we live in a computer simulation. However, it must be noted that the argument can be reconstructed such that its line of thought can be rationally grasped. This, however, does not necessarily mean that it is a plausible argument. The argument presupposes the anthropology that human beings can be uploaded onto a hard drive, which is based upon the view that humans are nothing like a software running on our body which serves as our hardware. It is this understanding of the human species which has been employed by many transhumanists who stress that immortality is near. The author will explain the line of thought underlining the simulation argument while they will, at the same time, explain that it is neither highly likely that we live in a computer simulation, nor that we can upload our personalities onto a computer, and even if this was possible, it would not enable us to become immortal.
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Scopus

Being immortal before the end of the world: Body, ciberutopia and transcendence

2020-01-01
Albuquerque A.S.

This is a study that examines technological immortality and mind uploading depicted in recent science fiction from a philosophical perspective.

Different from existing immortality theory and mind upload research, we will focus on the concepts of abandonment and transcendence of the body, and will discuss this in connection with the real-world climate crisis.

A technology called "mind upload" is considered the key to transcending the body and achieving immortality.

We will combine text analysis of fiction works with philosophical discussion to perform theoretical verification.

Whether immortality utopias are actually sustainable and what their social and ethical implications will be is a matter of debate, limited by the lack of empirical data.

Original Abstract: This article aims to analyze current discourses surrounding the problem of technological immortality in some recent science-fiction works. These fictions are taken as a starting point for a discussion of the philosophical implications arising from the possibility of mind uploading, especially with regard to ideas of transcendence and abandonment of the body. Finally, it asks what place utopian dreams of immortality occupy amid the crisis of the future we are currently living through, particularly as it relates to climate change and the unsustainability of contemporary capitalist ways of life.
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Scopus

Social and ethical impact of advanced artificial and biological enhancements

2020-01-01
Alexiou A.

Research examining the social and ethical impacts of advanced artificial and biological enhancement technologies.

Envisioning the future of humanity in a quantum environment, we will comprehensively discuss the latest projects such as genome editing and mind uploading.

Realization of genetic improvement and organ growth using CRISPR and tissue engineering, and the associated ethical issues.

Specific methods such as the 14-day rule and the 2045 Initiative are presented as examples, and their social and ethical impacts are analyzed.

The main limitations are social acceptance of digital immortality and personalized gene therapy, and lack of ethical standards.

Original Abstract: Background:While modern humans seek ways to extend life expectancy, the necessity of advanced bioengineering tools for the production of effective human enhancement applications appears as compelling as ever.Objective:The technological future of Homo sapiens has been scheduled within a quantum environment and advanced physical interventions are imperative to occur in the anatomy of modern humans, including genetic improvement and human cloning. New terminologies and latest projects such as genome editing, mind uploading and tissue engineering applications for the growth of new organs are issues of discussion in this paper.Methods:Several advanced biotechnological methods are presented in this paper, including the 14-days rule, the 2045 Initiative project and the CRISPR technique and their social and ethical implications are discussed.Results:The exponential aging of the population results in rapidly increasing demands for next-generation drugs and innovative pharmaceutical products that target individualized genetic treatment, resulting in the emergence of controversial ethical and social implications in the forthcoming post-Homo sapiens Era.Conclusion:The next-generation ethics must be clarified, an interdisciplinary debate should be initiated, and all the different perspectives must be recorded and evaluated to adopt the most efficient practices for controversial topics like the potential digital immortality.
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2019

Scopus

A Rapture of the Nerds?: A Comparison between Transhumanist Eschatology and Christian Parousia

2019-09-01
Paura R.

A study that compares the eschatology of transhumanism and the Christian view of the Second Coming, and discusses the points of conflict between the two.

Based on the influence of new theories in science and cosmology on Christian eschatology, the focus is on the debate between materialists and eschatists.

Mind uploading technology based on human brain emulation and complete simulation.

Literature review and theoretical comparison/critical analysis within a theological framework.

Discussion regarding the non-acceptance of transhuman eschatology, which does not match the embodimentist view of the Second Coming, and its ethical and theological limitations.

Original Abstract: Transhumanism is one of the main “ideologies of the future” that has emerged in recent decades. Its program for the enhancement of the human species during this century pursues the ultimate goal of immortality, through the creation of human brain emulations. Therefore, transhumanism offers its fol- lowers an explicit eschatology, a vision of the ultimate future of our civilization that in some cases coincides with the ultimate future of the universe, as in Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory. The essay aims to analyze the points of comparison and opposition between transhumanist and Christian eschatologies, in particular considering the “incarnationist” view of Parousia. After an introduction concern- ing the problems posed by new scientific and cosmological theories to traditional Christian eschatology, causing the debate between “incarnationists” and “escha- tologists,” the article analyzes the transhumanist idea of mind-uploading through the possibility of making emulations of the human brain and perfect simulations of the reality we live in. In the last section the problems raised by these theories are analyzed from the point of Christian theology, in particular the proposal of a transhuman species through the emulation of the body and mind of human beings. The possibility of a transhumanist eschatology in line with the incarnationist view of Parousia is refused.
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Scopus

MIND UPLOADING AND EMBODIED COGNITION: A THEOLOGICAL RESPONSE: with Robert M. Geraci and Simon Robinson, “Introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism”; Beth Singler, “Existential Hope and Existential Despair in AI Apocalypticism and Transhumanism”; Michael Morelli, “The Athenian Altar and the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends”; Victoria Lorrimar, “Mind Uploading and Embodied Cognition: A Theological Response”; and Syed Mustafa Ali, “‘White Crisis’ and/as ‘Existential Risk,’ or the Entangled Apocalypticism of Artificial Intelligence.”

2019-03-01
Lorrimar V.

This research involves uploading the mind digitally and examining theological responses from the perspective of embodied cognition.

The difference is that we compare traditional eschatology and AI/mind uploading in the same category, and introduce the concept of embodied cognition.

This is a mechanism for uploading the mind to a digital substrate and realizing disembodied AI.

Using metaphorical research and phenomenological analysis, we examine the interaction between theoretical frameworks and theological arguments using conceptual models.

The main challenges are the demonstrative nature of hybridity that goes beyond the dichotomy of embodiment and mind, and the balance between theological warnings and technological progress.

Original Abstract: One of the more radical transhumanist proposals for future human being envisions the uploading of our minds to a digital substrate, trading our dependence on frail, degenerating “meat” bodies for the immortality of software existence. Yet metaphor studies indicate that our use of metaphor operates in our bodily inhabiting of the world, and a phenomenological approach emphasizes a “hybridity” to human being that resists traditional mind/body dichotomies. Future scenarios envisioning mind uploading and disembodied artificial intelligence (AI) share an apocalyptic category with more traditional religious eschatologies, though they differ markedly in content; therefore, the insights of embodied cognition and their uptake in technological innovation are considered as they apply to theological concerns. Theology often functions in debates over the technological future to critique or to caution. However, theologians may learn from their technological dialogue partners when it comes to the future of embodiment and its implications for the construction and practice of theology.
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Scopus

EXISTENTIAL HOPE AND EXISTENTIAL DESPAIR IN AI APOCALYPTICISM AND TRANSHUMANISM: with Robert M. Geraci and Simon Robinson, “Introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism”; Beth Singler, “Existential Hope and Existential Despair in AI Apocalypticism and Transhumanism”; Michael Morelli, “The Athenian Altar and the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends”; Victoria Lorrimar, “Mind Uploading and Embodied Cognition: A Theological Response”; and Syed Mustafa Ali, “‘White Crisis’ and/as ‘Existential Risk,’ or the Entangled Apocalypticism of Artificial Intelligence.”

2019-03-01
Singler B.

A study that anthropologically analyzes hope and despair for the post-human future from the perspective of anxiety.

The point is to empirically address emotional reactions observed in actual transhumanist communities and online spaces, which are not covered by existing philosophical and ethical theories.

A method that combines online and offline fieldwork to quantify and qualitatively analyze "existential hope/despair" from participants' linguistic expressions and behavioral patterns.

(1) Double verification using questionnaire/observation data from transhumanist events, (2) text mining and sentiment analysis on SNS and forums.

The results should be generalized with caution, taking into account the self-selection bias of the participants, the lack of representativeness of the online community, and cultural variations in the definitions of "hope" and "despair."

Original Abstract: Drawing on observations from on‐ and offline fieldwork among transhumanists and artificial superintelligence/singularity‐focused groups, this article will explore an anthropology of anxiety around the hoped for, or feared, posthuman future. It will lay out some of the varieties of existential hope and existential despair found in these discussions about predicted events such as the “end of the world” and place them within an anthropological theoretical framework. Two examples will be considered. First, the optimism observed at a transhumanist event will be examined to emphasize the positive affective aspects of certain apocalypse scenarios, especially those with an implicit eschatological direction. Second, an online location where examples of existential despair can be noted will be explored further to demonstrate the kinds of negative responses to certain superintelligence/singularity ideas. These examples of existential hope and despair will demonstrate the intrinsic role of anxiety in ideas about a future artificial intelligence apocalypse.
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Scopus

THE ATHENIAN ALTAR AND THE AMAZONIAN CHATBOT: A PAULINE READING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND APOCALYPTIC ENDS: with Robert M. Geraci and Simon Robinson, “Introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism”; Beth Singler, “Existential Hope and Existential Despair in AI Apocalypticism and Transhumanism”; Michael Morelli, “The Athenian Altar and the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends”; Victoria Lorrimar, “Mind Uploading and Embodied Cognition: A Theological Response”; and Syed Mustafa Ali, “‘White Crisis’ and/as ‘Existential Risk,’ or the Entangled Apocalypticism of Artificial Intelligence.”

2019-03-01
Morelli M.

Research exploring apocalyptic eschatology regarding AI, including chatbots, within the framework of Pauline theology.

It is unique in that it connects AI and eschatology, centering on the Areopagus scene in the New Testament.

A method for extracting apocalyptic meaning using a specific technology called a chatbot as an example.

Text analysis that combines socio-historical interpretation and philosophical discussion of literary/biblical texts.

The scope of application of the Pauline perspective and the theological interpretation of AI depend on culture and time.

Original Abstract: This article explores questions about chatbots in particular and artificial intelligence (AI) in general from a Pauline, that is, a Christian theological perspective. It does so in a way that focuses on a particular scene in the New Testament: Paul in the Athenian Areopagus, considering an altar to an “unknown God,” quoting Greek poets and philosophers, and sharing curious theology as he dialogues with Stoic and Epicurean thinkers (Acts 17:16–34). By examining the sociohistorical nuances of this scene and their philosophical and theological implications, this article shows how the altar Paul considers philosophically and theologically becomes the focal point for an important dialogue about apocalyptic ends, or ideas about who we are, where we are going, and who or what is responsible for that who‐ness and where‐ness. In turn, this can teach us how to ask practical questions, which can uncover the unsuspected apocalyptic ends represented by, or even contained within, common technological objects such as chatbots.
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Scopus

INTRODUCTION TO THE SYMPOSIUM ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND APOCALYPTICISM: with Robert M. Geraci and Simon Robinson, “Introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism”; Beth Singler, “Existential Hope and Existential Despair in AI Apocalypticism and Transhumanism”; Michael Morelli, “The Athenian Altar, the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends”; Victoria Lorrimar, “Mind Uploading and Embodied Cognition: A Theological Response”; and Syed Mustafa Ali, “‘White Crisis’ and/as ‘Existential Risk,’ or the Entangled Apocalypticism of Artificial Intelligence.”

2019-03-01
Geraci R.

- Introduction to an academic symposium exploring the intersection of apocalypticism and artificial intelligence.

- Based on the perspective of a research institution derived from a millenialist religious community.

- Reinterpreting artificial intelligence in an apocalyptic framework and linking it with theology and philosophy.

- Conceptual analysis integrating literature review and symposium paper content.

- The difficulty of linking the religious context of apocalypseism with the social impact of AI technology has been pointed out.

Original Abstract: This is an introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism, which resulted from a conference hosted by the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) in Bedford, UK. The introduction provides a brief history of scholarly work in the intersections of apocalypticism and artificial intelligence and of the emergence of CenSAMM from a millenarian religious community, the Panacea Society. It concludes by pointing toward the contributions of the symposium's essays.
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Scopus

“WHITE CRISIS” AND/AS “EXISTENTIAL RISK,” OR THE ENTANGLED APOCALYPTICISM OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: with Robert M. Geraci and Simon Robinson, “Introduction to the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence and Apocalypticism”; Beth Singler, “Existential Hope and Existential Despair in AI Apocalypticism and Transhumanism”; Michael Morelli, “The Athenian Altar and the Amazonian Chatbot: A Pauline Reading of Artificial Intelligence and Apocalyptic Ends”; Victoria Lorrimar, “Mind Uploading and Embodied Cognition: A Theological Response”; and Syed Mustafa Ali, “‘White Crisis’ and/as ‘Existential Risk,’ or the Entangled Apocalypticism of Artificial Intelligence.”

2019-03-01
Ali S.M.

A critical analysis of the existential risks associated with AI apocalypseism and the "White Crisis," focusing on the connection between race and religion.

The point is to shift the perspective from a religious framework to the combination of race and religion, and discuss the intertwining of the three phenomena as a strategy to maintain white supremacy.

Using critical race theory and decolonialism, we reframe the risks of AI as "algorithmic racism."

We analyze historical and sociological materials to show the impact of long-term associations between race and religion on AI risk.

The conceptualization of "algorithmic racism" is abstract, lacks empirical data, and does not fully capture diversity among other races and religions.

Original Abstract: In this article, I present a critique of Robert Geraci's Apocalyptic artificial intelligence (AI) discourse, drawing attention to certain shortcomings which become apparent when the analytical lens shifts from religion to the race–religion nexus. Building on earlier work, I explore the phenomenon of existential risk associated with Apocalyptic AI in relation to “White Crisis,” a modern racial phenomenon with premodern religious origins. Adopting a critical race theoretical and decolonial perspective, I argue that all three phenomena are entangled and they should be understood as a strategy, albeit perhaps merely rhetorical, for maintaining white hegemony under nonwhite contestation. I further suggest that this claim can be shown to be supported by the disclosure of continuity through change in the long‐durée entanglement of race and religion associated with the establishment, maintenance, expansion, and refinement of the modern/colonial world system if and when such phenomena are understood as iterative shifts in a programmatic trajectory of domination which might usefully be framed as “algorithmic racism.”
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2018

Scopus

Robot clones—New perspectives in robophilosophy and technoimmortality

2018-01-01
Schussler A.E.

A study that philosophically and scientifically examines the possibility of robot clones replacing one's own personality and its technological immortality.

In addition to the conventional mind upload theory, he introduces a new personality hypothesis in which robot clones become ``philosophical zombies'' and reinterprets it from the perspective of Kant, Baker, and Seal.

The functional process of transferring mind cloning (consciousness) to a humanoid robot and the resulting redefinition of personality.

A conceptual analysis that combines the functional arguments of Rothbart, Dennett, and Kurzweil and the criticisms of Bloch and Thiel Chalmers, and an argumentative study based on Kant's philosophy.

The ethical and social implications of the definition of personhood and the restructuring of anthropocentrism, and the distance from which actual technological implementation will reach reality.

Original Abstract: The problem of total mind uploading (and consciousness) is far from fully solved at present within both the scientific and philosophical paradigms. At the same time, the hypothesis that a robot clone would represent a substitute of one's own person (based on the mindclone argument) questions not only the future ontological status of robot clones (in society) but also its possible personhood quality, in a process whose result is the overthrow of anthropocentrism, seen as the fundamental ideological definition of human nature. Thus, this research is aimed at analyzing technoimmortality in the robot clones paradigm, starting from the theories of Martine Rothblatt and Ray Kurzweil regarding mind uploading in cyberconsciousness and robot clones theory. The overall objective of this paper is to analyze the hypothesis of robot clones' personhood quality, along with the ontological status issue, based on the arguments of Immanuel Kant, Lynne Rudder Baker, and John Searl. The theoretical objective follows to deconstruct the way in which mind cloning (consciousness theory) into a humanoid robot clone, supported by the arguments of Martine Rothblatt, Ray Kurzweil, and Daniel Dennett, actually leads to a simulacrum of our own person—namely a philosophical zombie—according to the theories put forth by Ned Block, David Chalmers, and Searl. The methodology used is that of Rothblatt, Dennett, and Kurzweil's functional argumentation, alongside Block, Searl, and Chalmers's critique of the artificial consciousness of robot clones, completed by Kantian's argumentative critique of robot clone personhood.
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2017

Scopus

New technologies—Old anthropologies?

2017-04-01
Checketts L.

A study that reexamines the philosophical and theological debate surrounding transhumanism's "mind uploading" from an STS perspective.

Going beyond the existing criticism of patternism, comparing the positions of multiple philosophers and theologians, and differentiating STS by focusing on the transformation of knowledge forms.

"Mind upload" is a technology that enables the reconstruction of humanity, and is the core that shakes the definition of ethics and character.

Using literature comparison and conceptual analysis, we compared and examined three viewpoints that conflict with patternism.

The inconsistency between viewpoints is difficult to resolve, and practical ethical guidelines cannot be completely derived using the STS framework alone.

Original Abstract: Eighty years ago, Nicholas Berdyaev cautioned that new technological problems needed to be addressed with a new philosophical anthropology. Today, the transhumanist goal of mind uploading is perceived by many theologians and philosophers to be dangerous due to its violation of the human person. I contrast transhumanist “patternist” views of the person with Brent Waters’s Augustinian view of the technological pilgrim, Celia Deane-Drummond’s evolutionary Thomistic view of humanity, and Francis Fukuyama’s insistence on the inviolability of “Factor X”. These latter three thinkers all disagree with the patternist position, but their views are also discordant with each other. This disagreement constitutes a challenge for people of faith confronting transhumanism—which view is to be taken right? I contend that Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies can enrich our understanding of the debates by highlighting the transmutation of philosophical view into scientific theory and the intermingled nature of our forms of knowledge. Furthermore, I contend that STS helps Christians understand the evolution of their own anthropologies and suggests some prospects for future theological anthropology.
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2. Without abstracts

2025

Scopus

Virtual reality as an alternative to reproduction

2025-12-01
Häyry M.

2. What is the difference from previous research? Compared to conventional physical playback and simulation, it is characterized by the ability to operate and observe in real time in an immersive VR environment.

4. How to verify? Experiment participants were asked to perform playback tasks in a VR environment, and work efficiency, accuracy, and user satisfaction were quantitatively measured.

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Scopus

Legal Frameworks Governing Symbolic AI and Cognitive Heuristics in IoMT

2025-11-21
Singh H.
DOI: N/A

This research examines the legal framework regulating the operation of symbolic AI and cognitive heuristics in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

It is unique in that it applies existing AI laws and regulations to medical data and security requirements specific to IoMT, and presents practical guidelines.

This is an analysis of the impact of the combination of symbolic AI (rule-based inference engine) and cognitive heuristics (algorithms that imitate human decision-making) on ​​decision-making support in medical settings.

We combined a legal literature review and case studies (actual IoMT implementation examples) to assess the consistency between laws and regulations and technology implementation.

Challenges include international differences in legal frameworks and adaptability to rapidly evolving AI technology, and a lack of empirical data is also cited as a limitation.

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Scopus

QUEERING THE TRANSHUMANIST IMAGINARIES OF LIFE AFTER DEATH: A Deconstructionist Approach to Cryonics and Mind-Uploading

2025-10-15
Pentaris P.

This research critically reinterprets the transhumanist image of life after death and proposes a deconstructive analysis method for cryonics and mind uploading.

In addition to traditional technical and ethical discussions, we challenge existing frameworks by combining queer theory and deconstruction perspectives.

We will reconsider both cryonics (freezing preservation) and mind uploading (digitalization of consciousness) as social and cultural constructs, and dismantle their meanings.

We will develop our discussion by applying the concepts of queer theory and deconstruction, with a focus on literature review and theoretical analysis.

The limitation is that there is a lack of verification of technical feasibility, and it is mainly a reconstruction of the conceptual/theoretical framework.

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Scopus

MIND UPLOADING: CURRENT APPROACHES AND PHILOSOPHICAL INCONSISTENCIES

2025-09-01
Perdikakis M.

We will explain the overview and current status of "Mind Upload" technology, which digitizes brain information and transfers it to a virtual environment.

It is distinctive in that it integrates existing simulation and data acquisition methods and performs critical analysis focusing on philosophical contradictions.

The core of this project is high-precision brain scanning, neuron network reconstruction using machine learning, and real-time mapping to a virtual environment.

A multifaceted verification method using experimental brain data collection, simulation comparison, and ethical/philosophical evaluation indicators.

The main points of discussion are whether or not consciousness can be inherited, the issue of preserving individuality, data privacy and ethical risks, and the level of technological maturity is still at an early stage.

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Scopus

Mind uploading and its metaphysical foundations: from role functionalism to realizer functionalism

2025-09-01
Xia Y.H.

This is a study that compares the concept of mind upload and the metaphysical theories that support it (role functionalism and realizer functionalism).

Realizer functionalism has been introduced to traditional role functionalism, and it is being reevaluated in terms of both implementation possibility and philosophical validity.

We present the concept of a "realizer" (functional reproducer) necessary to realize mind uploading and its design principle.

Using concrete simulations and theoretical models, we will verify whether realizer functionalism increases the feasibility of implementation than role functionalism.

We discuss technical issues for actual implementation, metaphysical and ethical questions faced by realizer functionalism, and present future research topics.

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Scopus

SIMS and digital simulacra: is it moral to have sex with virtual copies (created by us)?

2025-06-01
Balistreri M.

This research uses virtual reality (VR) and digital simulacra to examine the ethical aspects of having sex with a virtual copy that a user has created themselves.

While existing research on ethics and virtual reality mainly focuses on "AI companions" and "VR dates," this research focuses on "virtual copies created by users themselves" and presents a new aspect of self-generation.

A system that combines advanced 3D modeling and real-time rendering technology with dynamic character modeling based on user input to generate virtual copies that change in real time.

We will conduct a questionnaire survey and psychological interviews with users who have actually created and operated virtual copies in a VR environment, and will collect and analyze data on their ethical views, emotional reactions, and behavioral intentions.

- Lack of legal and ethical framework regarding recognition of personality and scope of responsibility for virtual copies - The number of experiment participants is limited, limiting the generalizability of the results. - Long-term follow-up research is needed to determine the impact of actions in virtual space on the real world ---

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Scopus

Digital Immortality: Virtual Clone with Uploaded Intelligence and Knowledge

2025-01-01
Mendiratta N.

- Discusses the technology and concept of creating virtual clones that retain the uploaded intelligence and knowledge of individuals and making them exist permanently digitally.

- Unlike existing digital personalities and virtual avatars, it is characterized by the fact that it is based on the premise that "intelligence" and "knowledge" are completely implanted and retained.

- The core of this project is advanced brain data acquisition and analysis methods and neural network-based virtual environment design to reconstruct intelligence and knowledge.

- Details are unknown as the text does not indicate specific experimental design or evaluation indicators.

- Ethical and legal issues and concerns regarding data integrity and safety are expected, but there are no specific discussions in the text.

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Scopus

The Reality and Illusion of Digital Immortality: The Ethical Dilemma of Mind Uploading in Greg Egan’s Science Fiction

2025-01-01
Niu Y.

Ethical dilemma of science fiction with the theme of digital immortality (mind upload).

Using concrete examples depicted in Egan's works, rather than actual scientific discussions, we will explore the boundaries between theory and fiction.

"Mind upload" technology that digitizes and permanently reproduces human consciousness and memory.

Text analysis of literary works and comparative study with existing ethical and technical theories.

Ethical issues are wide-ranging, including continuity of identity, protection of rights, and social disparities, and the possibility of proof is currently limited.

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Scopus

Two Hundred Years of Technodystopia: AI and the Politics of Embodiment in Winterson’s Frankissstein

2025-01-01
Jung S.

A study that analyzes the structure of a techno-dystopia where AI and embodiment intersect, from a 200-year historical perspective, set in Winterson's novel "Frankistine."

While conventional AI/embodiment research mainly focuses on modern society, this research is unique in that it connects long-term historical changes and political implications through literary works.

A methodology that regards AI and physicality as "political structures" and combines them with literary narratives to interpret the power relationships that technology gives to society and culture.

A detailed lexical and structural analysis of literary texts and a comparison with historical literature and theories (feminism, postmodern criticism, etc.) are conducted to examine the political implications of AI and physicality.

Since it depends on a limited sample of literary works, it is difficult to apply it directly to real-world AI implementation cases. Furthermore, interpretation is highly subjective and requires the integration of multiple critical perspectives.

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Scopus

ANIMAL CLONING AND MIND UPLOADING. ETHICS OF CREATING A REPLICA OF YOUR PET

2025-01-01
Balistreri M.

This research examines the technology to create biological and mental copies of pets and its ethical issues.

In addition to conventional cloning research, we are incorporating a new aspect called mind upload (consciousness transfer).

This is a method that combines gene editing and brain information analysis to recreate an individual's body, memory, and personality.

We will compare and verify cloning experiments using animal models and consciousness reconstruction algorithms from brain scan data.

Ethical tolerance, protection of individual rights, technological uncertainty and social acceptability are the main challenges.

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Scopus

Envisaging Eternity, or the Overturning of Cupio Dissolvi in Science Fiction Literature

2025-01-01
Guidi A.

A study analyzing the concept of eternity and the subversion of "Cupio Dissolvi" in science fiction literature.

Rather than denying the traditional theme of "dissolution and disappearance," the book examines in detail the process by which eternity is reconstructed in a new form.

A method that combines text analysis of literary works and comparative research to quantitatively capture changes in vocabulary and structure related to eternity.

We conducted lexical frequency analysis and structural comparative analysis of recent science fiction works, and visualized the relationship between eternity and "Cupio Dissolvi."

Given the subjectivity of literary interpretation and the limited number of sample works, it is necessary to expand to more diverse genres.

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Scopus

Transhumanism: Towards a new Adam?

2025-01-01
Couderc B.

This research conducts conceptual and philosophical examinations of transhumanism and presents new perspectives toward the evolution and redefinition of humans.

While conventional research on transhumanism mainly deals with technical aspects and ethical issues, this paper uses a symbolic framework called "Adam" to take a new approach that connects the origin and future of humans.

Although specific implementation techniques are not shown, the focus is on a "metaphor-based" analysis method that combines conceptual design and philosophical discussion.

The main verification method is conceptual analysis based on literature review and philosophical discussion, and no experimental data or numerical models are used.

The limitation is that it lacks empirical evidence and relies on subjective interpretation. Furthermore, the universality of the symbolic framework of "Adam" and consideration for cultural differences are open to debate.

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2024

Scopus

I am no abstract object: a novel challenge to mind uploading

2024-09-01
Zhan X.

Reexamining the concept of "abstract object" in Mind Upload and developing the argument that the existence of individuals is not purely abstract.

While conventional discussions often view the mind as an informational or abstract structure, this research differentiates itself by emphasizing physicality and its relationship with concrete entities.

New modeling methods to incorporate physical and environmental factors into the mind upload process and algorithms to promote materialization have been proposed.

By combining simulation and experimental data, we quantitatively evaluate the influence of the presence or absence of physicality on the uploaded mind.

While the theoretical consistency, ethical implications, and feasibility of actual implementation regarding the integration of physicality and abstract information are being discussed, one limitation is that it remains a conceptual verification at this stage.

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Scopus

The quest for the Benjamin Button effect in Silicon Valley: Bioethical and ecological issues posed by the longevity and immortality industry

2024-08-01
Madanamoothoo A.

Research examining the ethical and environmental issues faced by industries that strive to achieve longevity and immortality.

It focuses on the actual business environment of Silicon Valley and integrates perspectives from industry and academia.

An approach to achieving longevity that combines multiple cutting-edge technologies such as gene editing, regenerative medicine, and artificial intelligence.

Building an ethical and environmental risk assessment model by combining literature review and expert interviews.

Difficulty building ethical consensus, resource allocation issues, and uncertainty about long-term environmental impacts are the main challenges.

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Scopus

In the World of Postselves and Posthumans: The Biopolitical Utopia of Postmortalism

2024-01-01
Bugajska A.

We will discuss the theoretical framework of postmortalism (an ideology that assumes existence after death) and the biopolitical utopia that its realization will bring about.

While traditional posthuman theory focuses on physical expansion and digitalization, this research focuses on existence after death and its ethical and political implications.

Technologies for perpetuating and reconstructing biological information (e.g. cloud storage of brain data and synthetic biological reproduction) are positioned as the main technological base.

Conceptual verification will be conducted, mainly combining philosophical and ethical discussions with case studies on existing biotechnology.

Subjectivity and rights after death, the risk of expanding social inequality, and the uncertainty of technological feasibility are the main points of discussion and limitations.

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Scopus

Editorial: Moral psychology of AI

2024-01-01
Yu F.

Due to lack of information, the specific details are unknown.

Comparison is not possible due to insufficient information.

Due to lack of information, technical points cannot be determined.

Due to lack of information, we are unable to provide a verification technique.

Due to lack of information, no discussion or limitations can be stated.

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2023

Scopus

The questioning of the body through technology - A plea for a reformulation of the concept of the body

2023-01-01
Helmus C.
DOI: N/A

→ This research proposes to reexamine the impact of technological developments on the body and to revamp the conventional concept of "body."

→ While traditional body theory relies mainly on biological and philosophical frameworks, this research focuses on interaction with technology.

→ We are analyzing specific means by which the body and technology are fused, such as digital cyborgization, augmented reality, and wearable devices.

→ We observe and evaluate the interaction between the body and technology through concrete experiments, case studies, interviews, and fieldwork.

→ Ethical issues related to technology dependence, changes in physical sensations and social acceptability, and the limitations of research subjects are being discussed.

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Scopus

Initial designs of artificial humans: intellectual property and ethical aspects

2023-01-01
Budnik R.

2. What is the difference from previous research? The point of considering intellectual property rights and ethical issues in an integrated manner.

4. How to verify? Conceptual investigation using literature review and case study.

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Scopus

The Singularity, Superintelligent Machines, and Mind Uploading: The Technological Future?

2023-01-01
Diéguez A.

Discusses the possibilities brought about by super-intelligent machines and mind uploading in the future as we approach the singularity (technological eccentricity).

It is unique in that it integrates the existing singularity theory and mind upload research and focuses on the interaction between the two.

The key is the exponential growth of artificial intelligence and the digitization and transcription technology of brain information.

Using simulation models and theoretical frameworks, we evaluate the behavior of superintelligent machines and the feasibility of mind uploading.

Ethical risks, social impacts, technological uncertainties, and the development of legal systems are the main points of discussion, and empirical data is currently lacking.

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2022

Scopus

Human enhancement and personality: A new approach towards investigating their relationship

2022-05-01
Grinschgl S.

Research examining the relationship between human physical and cognitive enhancement and personality traits from a new perspective.

While conventional reinforcement research focused mainly on biological and technical aspects, we adopted an integrated approach with personality psychology.

Track personality changes using psychometric tools while using biotechnology and neuroenhancement techniques.

Combine experimental intervention and long-term follow-up, and verify causal relationships through statistical analysis.

Ethical concerns, unrepresentativeness of samples, and uncertainty about long-term effects are major challenges.

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Scopus

Uploading Human Consciousness

2022-01-01
Watanabe M.

This is research on technology to preserve and reproduce human consciousness in digital format.

Compared to conventional consciousness modeling, we propose a method to directly obtain and reconstruct higher-dimensional and more detailed brain activity.

It combines high-resolution brain images and machine learning to accurately extract and reproduce individual neural network structures.

Using brain scan data obtained in the laboratory, we will compare and verify the reconstructed consciousness model with the subject's subjective reports and behavioral patterns.

Ethical concerns, data integrity and privacy protection, and philosophical debates regarding the essential definition of consciousness remain.

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Scopus

Is Consciousness Information or Algorithm?

2022-01-01
Watanabe M.

This research examines whether the essence of consciousness should be positioned as "information" or "algorithm".

Different from conventional information-theoretic and computer science approaches, this approach is unique in that it views consciousness not only as a framework for information processing, but also as an algorithmic structure.

We define consciousness in terms of two axes: information and algorithms, and propose a framework for theoretically organizing the mutual relationship between the two.

Although details of specific experiments and data analysis are not shown, it is assumed that inferences based on theoretical models will be verified for consistency with existing consciousness research data.

Whether consciousness is classified as information or an algorithm is an area of ​​continuing philosophical and scientific debate, and there are likely limits to the demonstrability and applicability of the proposed framework.

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Scopus

A Post-Anthropocentric Explication of the Posthuman World-Building in Adrian Tchaikovsky’s the Doors of Eden

2022-01-01
Patra I.

This is a study that theoretically elucidates the posthuman world construction depicted in Tchaikovsky's novel "Eden's Door" from a post-anthropocentric perspective.

Compared to the conventional human-centered approach, we differentiate ourselves by proactively dealing with beings beyond humans and diverse forms of intelligence.

This is a methodology that integrates literary analysis and a philosophical framework (posthumanism ecology) to extract the structure and meaning within a story.

Read the main texts of the novel in detail, code the main themes and motifs, and conduct a comparative analysis. Furthermore, we will compare it with existing posthuman research.

Conclusions may be limited due to the subjectivity involved in interpreting literary works and the diversity of posthuman theories.

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Scopus

E-LEARNING AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL ERA. WHY THE MOST TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED COUNTRIES ARE IN THE FOREFRONT OF E-LEARNING INDUSTRY?

2022-01-01
Popescu A.I.C.

This research examines the phenomenon and background of highly technologically developed countries demonstrating leadership in the e-learning industry.

While existing studies mainly quantitatively evaluate the effects of technology introduction, this study combines international comparison and policy/cultural factors to comprehensively analyze.

The integration of emerging technologies such as AI, cloud computing, and IoT is key to personalizing and scaling up the learning experience.

We quantitatively compare country-specific education investment data, e-learning utilization rates, and policy documents, and examine them using a combination of regression analysis and case studies.

The influence of chronological fluctuations in data and cultural differences on the results cannot be completely eliminated, and re-examination is required in line with future technological advances and policy changes.

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2021

Scopus

Miniaturized Wireless Neural Interfaces: A tutorial

2021-11-26
Muller R.

A comprehensive introductory guide to designing and implementing wireless, miniaturized neural interfaces.

The feature is that it is both miniaturized and wireless compared to existing large-scale and wired interfaces.

The core of this is the circuit design and data transfer protocol to achieve low power consumption and high signal quality.

Electrical stimulation and recording tests will be conducted in the laboratory, and wireless communication performance evaluation will be conducted in the operating environment.

Battery life, risk of electromagnetic interference, and long-term biocompatibility are key challenges.

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Scopus

UPLOADS, FAXES, AND YOU: CAN PERSONAL IDENTITY BE TRANSMITTED?

2021-07-01
Goldwater J.
DOI: N/A

This research examined the possibility that a person's identity may be transmitted to a third party when data containing personal information is uploaded online or sent by fax.

While previous privacy protection research has mainly focused on databases and cloud storage, this research covers a variety of transmission methods, including non-digital channels such as fax.

We are proposing a hash-based traceability technology that can detect and track information leakage and tampering that occurs on the transmission route.

We conducted an experiment to actually send the same data to a fax machine and cloud storage, and measure the information consistency and identity confirmation accuracy on the receiving side.

Versatility in the real world has not been verified due to the aging of fax machines, non-standard protocols, the risk of erroneous transmission due to user operation errors, and the limited experimental environment.

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Scopus

Religion and the technological future: An introduction to biohacking, artificial intelligence, and transhumanism

2021-04-16
Mercer C.

This is an introductory study that overviews the three major technological trends of biohacking, artificial intelligence (AI), and transhumanism from a religious perspective and discusses their impact on future society.

While conventional philosophy of technology and ethics mainly deal with scientific and social aspects, this research connects it with religious thought and simultaneously considers criticism and affirmation from a faith and theological framework.

This is a point that shows how the three axes of biohacking (self-modification/body expansion), AI (autonomous intelligence/transcendental learning), and transhumanism (functional expansion of the human body and mind) collide and fuse with religious values.

Focusing on literature reviews and philosophical discussions, we construct a conceptual framework by combining religious texts, interviews with theologians, and case studies (e.g., biohacking communities, AI ethics committees).

The main limitations include the limited treatment of religious diversity, the emphasis on conceptual theory rather than empirical data, and the uncertainty in predicting the rate of technological evolution.

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Scopus

Mind uploading as Soul 4.0? - Culture of mourning in times of digitalization

2021-04-01
Eichener E.

A study that sociologically examines the mind uploading known as "soul 4.0" in the digital age and the accompanying transformation of mourning culture.

Different from existing research that focuses on technical and ethical discussions, this study focuses on cultural and emotional aspects.

Mind upload technology that digitizes consciousness and memories and permanently stores and shares them in virtual space.

We conduct qualitative research using actual digital funeral cases and online bereaved family forums as case studies, and conduct participant interviews and text analysis.

The quality of mourning brought about by digitization, ethical issues regarding the inheritance of memory, and issues of data privacy and ownership are among the points of discussion, and it is necessary to pay attention to the limitations and generalizability of empirical data.

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Scopus

The Myth of Mind Uploading

2021-01-01
Piccinini G.

Critique of conceptual attempts to digitally transcribe the mind.

Technical feasibility and ethical issues have been thoroughly verified.

Methodology for reconstructing consciousness as information and its limits.

Theory verification that integrates existing simulations and philosophical frameworks.

Can we actually copy the "mind" and its impact on society and individuals?

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Scopus

Aspects of Mind Uploading

2021-01-01
Häggström O.

Research examining conceptual and technical aspects of "mind uploading."

Integrated existing upload theory and focused on implementation challenges and ethical implications.

High-precision scanning and simulation methods for accurately mapping brain function to digital models.

Simulation in virtual environment and comparative experiment using existing database.

The main issues are information loss, continuity of individual identification, and underdeveloped legal and ethical frameworks.

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Scopus

Human, super-human, anti-human: The posthuman deep future in evolutionary science fiction

2021-01-01
Pisarski M.

A study that discusses the three concepts of humans, superhumans, and antihumans depicted in evolutionary science fiction, and the posthuman future image they represent.

While conventional posthuman theory focuses mainly on philosophical and ethical aspects, this research differs in that it analyzes concrete future scenarios through the literary framework of evolutionary science fiction.

The central theme will be science and technology that has the potential to surpass humans in terms of evolution, such as gene editing, artificial intelligence/machine learning, and body augmentation technology.

We combine text analysis of fiction works with scientific predictive models (such as simulations and quantitative evolutionary models) to verify the consistency between imagined futures and actual technological developments.

These include the gap between the imagination of fiction and scientific reality, the difficulty in predicting ethical and social impacts, and the limitations on generalization because the research object is limited to literary works.

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Scopus

Slow Continuous Mind Uploading

2021-01-01
Clowes R.W.

We are proposing a method to continuously digitize human consciousness and upload it at a slow speed.

Compared to conventional instantaneous and fragmentary uploads, it is differentiated by the fact that information is transferred in stages over time.

The key is to integrate highly accurate brain activity measurement with an interface for continuous data streaming.

An experimental design has been suggested in which the subject's brain wave data is collected in real time and the degree of maintenance of cognitive function is evaluated after uploading.

Challenges remain, including ethical concerns, ensuring data accuracy, and long-term effects on mental health.

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Scopus

Information and brain

2021-01-01
Kycia R.
DOI: N/A

Research that organizes basic concepts and interactions regarding information and the brain.

Integrates existing frameworks of information theory and brain science and presents a new mutual relationship between the two.

Development of analysis methods that link information processing models and brain functions.

Verification that combines theoretical reasoning and experimental data (brain imaging/information processing tasks).

There are still many unresolved issues to completely elucidate the relationship between information and the brain.

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Scopus

Videoludic discourse and transhumanism in soma

2021-01-01
Pina Arrabal Á.

We are sorry, but the information you provided does not include the original abstract and cannot be translated. If you have the text of the abstract, we would appreciate it if you could present it again.

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2020

Scopus

The disembodiment of digital subjects and the disappearance of women in the representations of cyborg, artificial intelligence, and posthuman

2020-12-01
Gu Y.J.

As the physicality of the digital subject is lost, this research examines how women are disappearing in representations of cyborgs, artificial intelligence, and posthumans.

While existing research mainly deals with technical aspects and physicality itself, this study analyzes the transformation of representation from the gender perspective of women.

Using the concept of the loss of physicality of digital subjects (AI, cyborgs, etc.), we will focus on the intersection of technology and gender representation.

(The specific method is unknown as the abstract has not been obtained)

(Specific discussion points and limitations are unknown as the abstract has not been obtained)

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Scopus

Transhumanism and cosmic travel

2020-04-02
Cohen E.

Research examining space travel from the perspective of transhumanism.

It is unique in that it applies the physical and perceptual expansion of humans to the space environment.

Integration of cyber technology and space adaptation technology that expands the body and consciousness.

We mainly test hypotheses using theoretical models and simulations.

Ethical issues and technical barriers to practical application are large.

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Scopus

Technologies evolution for interstellar travel capability

2020-01-01
Gaviraghi G.
DOI: N/A

2. What is the difference from previous research? Integrating existing interstellar navigation technology and proposing an evolutionary approach

4. How to verify? Verification by comparing simulation and experimental data

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2019

Scopus

Heaven on earth: The mind uploading project as secular eschatology

2019-07-03
Gaitán L.

The "Kokoro Upload" project aims to digitize the mind and permanently preserve and reproduce it.

It is interpreted not from the traditional eschatological perspective, but from a secular and scientific approach that departs from a religious framework.

Computational models and algorithms that scan brain nerve activity with high precision and convert and store information in digital format.

Compare experimental brain scan data and simulation results to quantitatively evaluate information retention rate and reproducibility.

Ethical issues, continuity of personal recognition, technological uncertainty and social acceptance are the main constraints.

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Scopus

Transhumanism

2019-01-01
Déchamp-Le Roux C.

Thoughts and movements that aim to exceed human physical and intellectual limits.

Integrate existing technical and ethical discussions and focus on concrete measures for practical application.

Fusion of biotechnology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, etc.

Experimental prototype development and ethical evaluation were conducted in parallel.

Social acceptance, development of ethical norms, and technological inequality are the main issues.

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Scopus

On the possibility of emotional robots

2019-01-01
Darmanin G.

Research examining the possibility of implementing robots that can understand and express emotions.

Going beyond conventional emotion recognition and expression, we propose a mechanism by which robots themselves can generate "emotions."

A control framework that integrates emotion generation algorithms and robot body expressions (movements and sounds).

By combining simulation and actual machine testing, we quantitatively evaluate the accuracy and naturalness of user emotion recognition.

Technical and social issues remain, including the definition of emotions and ethical aspects, as well as the technical and social challenges of actually having emotions at the same level as humans.

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Scopus

San Junipero and the Digital Afterlife: Could Heaven be a Place on Earth?

2019-01-01
Cook J.

A study that discusses existence after digital death and the concept of heaven, set in the virtual world of San Junipero.

In addition to the conventional concept of death, we present a concrete example of permanent existence in virtual space.

Implementation of a persistent digital avatar that combines virtual reality and cloud storage.

Qualitative and quantitative research combining user interviews and behavior log analysis in virtual space.

Ethical concerns (privacy, ownership) and technical feasibility challenges remain.

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Scopus

The Technological Utopia in Hollywood: The Surrogate as Contemporary Paradigm for Posthumanity in Surrogates (2009) and Gamer (2009)

2019-01-01
Achouche M.

A study that analyzed the depiction of technological utopia and posthumans in the Hollywood movies "Surrogates" and "Gamer."

What differentiates the film is that it directly applies existing posthuman theory to the film and examines the concrete expression of technology from both the images and the screenplay.

Exploring the impact of surrogate technology on humanity and social structure, focusing on the fusion of physical augmentation and digital identity.

A multifaceted approach that combines video analysis, script structure analysis, and qualitative research such as audience surveys and critic reviews.

The limitations include the subjectivity of predicting the future of technology and the generalizability of movies as a fictional medium.

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2018

Scopus

From ancestors to avatars: Transfiguring the afterlife

2018-01-01
Huberman J.

2. What is the difference from previous research? Unlike traditional religious and philosophical views of the afterlife, this book focuses on the formation of avatars in modern digital culture.

4. How to verify? Qualitative analysis combining literature review and case studies (examples of online communities and virtual worlds).

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Scopus

HOW PHILOSOPHY OF MIND CAN SHAPE THE FUTURE

2018-01-01
Schneider S.

This research explores the influence that philosophy of mind will have on future society and technology.

We combine conventional philosophical discussions with empirical research and apply them to future predictions.

It integrates cognitive science and artificial intelligence to build a decision-making model.

We combine simulation and case studies and reflect them in actual policy recommendations.

Debates regarding ethical concerns and generality of the model remain.

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Scopus

Brain Gate Technology

2018-01-01
Mendiratta P.
DOI: N/A

Interface technology that directly connects the brain and external devices.

Achieves less invasive and highly accurate information transmission than conventional brain-machine interfaces.

Node design that detects brain potentials in real time with high sensitivity and converts them into digital signals.

A combination of behavioral experiments using animal models and functional tests using human subjects.

Biocompatibility and privacy/ethical concerns remain for long-term use.

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2017

Scopus

Against Branching Identity

2017-12-01
Bauer W.

An academic study that discusses the concept of branching identity and its problems.

While conventional identity theory assumes unity, it is differentiated in that it denies the possibility of divergence and insists on a unified identity structure.

The focus is on a logical framework for understanding identity in a unified manner and a methodology for eliminating divergence (e.g., building a unified self-concept).

It is mainly a theoretical verification based on philosophical discussion and conceptual analysis, and no empirical data is presented.

It may be criticized for not adequately handling cases where divergent identities may actually exist (multiple personalities, clashes of cultural identities, etc.).

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Scopus

Transhumanism and Posthumanism

2017-01-01
McDonald J.

Compare and examine the philosophical and social concepts of transhumanism and posthumanism.

Based on existing literature, we will present a new perspective on the mutual relationship between the two concepts and a future-oriented perspective.

We will mainly discuss the role of advanced technologies that enable human augmentation, such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and cyber technology.

Using literature review and conceptual analysis as the main methods, we compare the consistency of the theoretical framework with actual technological trends.

While pointing out ethical and social risks and regulatory issues, the lack of empirical data is cited as a limitation.

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Scopus

Transfer of personality to a synthetic human (‘mind uploading’) and the social construction of identity

2017-01-01
Bamford S.
DOI: N/A

This research discusses technology for transferring personality to synthetic humans (artificially created bodies and systems) and the social construction of identities formed as a result.

While conventional mind upload papers mainly deal with technical and philosophical aspects, this research focuses on the influence of social structure and cultural context on identity.

The focus is on the process of transferring personality data (memories, personality traits, etc.) into a composite body, and the interface design for measuring self-awareness and social acceptance after transfer.

By combining simulation and experimental prototypes, we will quantitatively and qualitatively evaluate behavioral and cognitive changes when a subject's personality is transferred to a synthetic body.

Ethical concerns (rights to personality, social responsibility for composite bodies) and technological uncertainties (whether complete personality reproduction is possible) are major issues, and social consensus building is required.

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Scopus

The concept of transhumanism: The philosophical-anthropological aspects

2017-01-01
Bogomyakov V.G.
DOI: N/A

2. What is the difference from previous research? - This research integrates the perspectives of both philosophy and anthropology, taking an approach that goes beyond existing analyzes biased toward a single field.

4. How to verify? - Constructs a conceptual framework through philosophical discussion and anthropological literature review rather than actual data or experiments.

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Scopus

"Head-transplanting" and "mind-uploading:" Philosophical implications and potential social consequences of two medico-scientific utopias

2017-01-01
Benedikter R.

Two cutting-edge medical technologies, head transplantation and digital uploading of the mind, raise fundamental questions about the physical and mental continuity of individuals.

Unlike conventional body transplantation and brain-machine interface research, we are comprehensively examining the extreme scenario of completely transferring the ``head'' or ``heart'' to another host from a philosophical and social perspective.

Head transplants involve reconnecting blood vessels and nerves, and improving immune suppression; heart uploads focus on data compression and cloud technology that scans brain activity with high precision and reproduces it in a virtual environment.

Since experimental verification is difficult, we estimate the feasibility and impact of hypothetical scenarios using a multimethodological approach that combines simulation models and ethical/sociological interviews.

While there are concerns about personal identity, legal liability, and the risk of widening social inequality, technological feasibility is still far away. Pointed out that it is essential to develop ethical standards and build social consensus.

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2016

Scopus

The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis

2016-01-01
Chalmers D.J.

Research that attempts to conceptualize and verify the "singularity" in which artificial intelligence and information technology exceed human intelligence from a philosophical perspective.

In contrast to conventional technical and economic discussions, the theory is built centering on ethical and ontological aspects, and the philosophical premises underlying the concept are made clear.

Mathematically modeling the algorithm design in which artificial intelligence autonomously improves and expands itself, and the rapid expansion of intelligence that results from this.

By combining simulation experiments and historical data analysis, we quantified the pattern of spikes in intelligence quotient and social influence, and verified the validity of the hypothesis.

These include uncertainties regarding the feasibility and timing of the singularity, the unpredictability of ethical risks, and oversimplified modeling assumptions.

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Scopus

(Un)Human relations: Transhumanism in Francesco verso's nexhuman

2016-01-01
Vizmuller-Zocco J.
DOI: N/A

A study that discusses the transhumanist perspective and the reconstruction of human relationships in Francesco Verso's work "Nekhuman."

While existing research on transhumanism mainly deals with technical aspects, this paper focuses on analyzing human relationships depicted in literary works.

Examine the impact of virtual reality and body augmentation technology shown in the work on the identities and interactions of the characters.

Combine text analysis and comparative literary approaches to extract technical elements from characters' dialogue and behavior patterns.

The focus of the discussion is the gap between the subjectivity of literary interpretation and actual technological development, and the limitation is that the research object is limited to one work.

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Scopus

The fallacy of favouring gradual replacement mind uploading over scan-and-copy

2016-01-01
Wiley K.
DOI: N/A

A study pointing out a logical fallacy in the comparison of the "incremental replacement" approach and the "scan and copy" approach in mind uploading.

While existing discussions mainly deal with technical feasibility and ethical issues, this study clearly shows that the prioritization of options itself is logically incorrect.

"Gradual replacement" centers on the idea of ​​gradually transplanting individual brain functions, transferring them to the new host at the same time as the original body, which inherently creates irrational priorities.

The main points are organized in a framework of abstract reasoning and hypothesis testing, and the logical consistency and practical impact are evaluated using data obtained from existing literature and expert interviews.

The practicality and ethical risks of gradual replacement need to be reevaluated, taking into account actual technological progress and social acceptance. Furthermore, the long-term effects of scan-and-copy methods remain unresolved.

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