Stephen Hawking: brain could exist outside body

At premiere of film about his life, physicist says it's theoretically possible to copy brain on to computer to provide life after deathStephen Hawking has said he believes brains could exist independently of the body, but that the idea of a conventional afterlife is a fairy tale.Speaking at the premiere of a documentary film about his life, the theoretical physicist said: "I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer, so it's theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death."However, this is way beyond our present capabilities. I think the conventional afterlife is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark."The 71-year-old author of A Brief History of Time, who earlier this week backed the right for the terminally ill to end their lives as long as safeguards were in place, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21 and given two to three years to live."All my life I have lived with the threat of an early death, so I hate wasting time," Hawking said on Thursday night, using the computer-generated voice he controls with a facial muscle and a blink from one eye.The documentary explores the headlong rush of a brilliant schoolboy with illegible handwriting who enjoyed the dilettante life of Oxford University before illness sparked a lifelong frenzy of discovery about the origins of the universe, which began as a graduate at Cambridge University and has astounded the world.The film premi...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Tags: theguardian.com World news Physics Stephen Hawking Science Source Type: news