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Virtually Human Paperback – October 6, 2015
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A groundbreaking and compelling book that gives readers an in-depth understanding of the most thought-provoking and important technological innovation of the twenty-first century
Every day, social media is automatically uploading our thoughts, memories, preferences, beliefs, and history to a virtual existence, essentially creating a "mindfile" of ourselves. Thousands of software engineers across the globe are working on "mindware" to create from these mindfile personalities and humanlike consciousness in computer software, or cyberconsciousness. In the next decade or two, these efforts will result in the first digital copies of our identities, which will be our "mindclones."
In Virtually Human, Martine Rothblatt shares her insights into how cyberconsciousness will manifest in our lives, and what we need to consider when a new, high-tech population of mindclones awakens to the rights, privileges, and obligations humans take for granted.
Virtually Human conveys a profound understanding of how close we are to achieving a full simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology in clear, positive language, and raises numerous ethical and moral questions we absolutely need to address now, before the technology becomes commercially viable and accessible to all of us. Virtually Human will be the essential companion book to the future of mankind.
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPicador Paper
- Publication dateOctober 6, 2015
- Dimensions5.5 x 0.92 x 8.25 inches
- ISBN-101250046912
- ISBN-13978-1250046918
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“A fascinating read that clearly brings Alan Turing into the twenty-first century.” ―J. Craig Venter, Ph.D., author of Life at the Speed of Light and creator of the first synthetic cell
“Martine Rothblatt has a knack for expanding our minds as well as our comfort zones beyond customary boundaries, be they of gender or substrate.” ―Ray Kurzweil
“Maybe the most fascinating woman on the planet” ―Jezebel
“Ingenious... a thoughtful philosophical exploration of the role of virtual humans in our future” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Exponential technologies are driving a new dimension of human evolution. In her compelling book, Virtually Human, Martine Rothblatt outlines how artificial consciousness is just around the corner, and explores the scientific and ethical ramifications. Science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact and the implications are breathtaking. Virtually Human is critical reading to anyone who plans to be around for the next couple of decades.” ―Peter H. Diamandis, MD, CEO, XPRIZE; Exec Chairman, Singularity University; New York Times bestselling author of Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think
“We are in the midst of a war between biological and electronic brains for dominance in our hybrid population. Bio-brains are, so far, ahead based on their inventiveness, energy-efficiency and exponential improvement rate. Will ethics asymmetrically restrict engineering humans or will it equally apply soon to 'virtually human' electronic brains? Martine's insights on these and many other topics are timely and welcome.” ―George Church, Harvard Professor, and author of Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves
“In Virtually Human, Martine Rothblatt builds on the observation that "I think, therefore I am" in ways that Descartes could not have imagined. With the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, Rothblatt predicts that we soon will confront cyberconsciousness comparable to--indeed, indistinguishable from--the human mind. When we cross this technological Rubicon, we will be forced to reconsider the meaning of concepts as foundational as life and death, law and liberty, love and kinship. Bringing to bear the lessons of history, philosophy, psychology, law and science, Rothblatt makes abundantly clear that these unprecedented challenges will define the humanity not just of our technological doppelgangers but of ourselves.” ―Rachel F. Moran, Dean and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, and author of Interracial Intimacy: The Regulation of Race and Romance
“Martine Rothblatt delivers an engaging exploration of the pathway to the near-term realization of our digital clones, and through the many ethical, legal, and spiritual challenges their advent will pose. Even skeptics, like myself, will find Virtually Human an intriguing vision filled with profoundly challenging ideas.” ―Wendell Wallach, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, co-author of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right From Wrong
“The social struggle over the moral status of uploaded personalities and machine minds will be as fraught and momentous as the struggles to end slavery and extend women's suffrage. In Virtually Human, Martine Rothblatt brings her remarkable intellect and profound ethical insight to this issue in a way that will make it essential reading.” ―James J. Hughes, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
“Advances in cognitive and computer sciences render artificial humans possible, some duplicating natural individuals with increasing fidelity. When must we confront the ethical, legal, and social implications? Now, in Virtually Human!” ―William Sims Bainbridge, author of Personality Capture and Emulation and eGods: Faith Versus Fantasy in Computer Gaming
“A wide-ranging, very readable, and possibly prescient look at one of the future's most exciting -- and at the same time most disturbing -- possibilities. Martine Rothblatt has been investigating this field, which some call uploading, for as long as anyone and has many rewarding insights.” ―J. Storrs Hall, author of Beyond AI and Nanofuture
About the Author
RALPH STEADMAN was born in 1936. He began his career as a cartoonist, and through the years has diversified into many creative fields. Ralph collaborated with Dr Hunter S. Thompson in the birth of 'gonzo' journalism, with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; he has illustrated classics such as Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island and Animal Farm, and written and illustrated his own books, which include Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo and The Big I Am. Steadman is also a printmaker, and has travelled the world's vineyards, culminating in his books The Grapes of Ralph, Untrodden Grapes and Still Life with Bottle. Steadman's recent books for Bloomsbury include his epic collection of bird illustrations, Extinct Boids.
Product details
- Publisher : Picador Paper; First Edition (October 6, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250046912
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250046918
- Item Weight : 13.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.92 x 8.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #912,767 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,859 in Artificial Intelligence & Semantics
- #3,029 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #24,178 in Philosophy (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Martine Rothblatt creates technologies to help people's lives. She created the vehicle tracking by satellite industry, she invented satellite radio and she built the Lifenaut and CyBeRev computer networks used to store people's consciousness as digital mindfiles. Most recently she created a biotechnology company to help save the lives of people with pulmonary disorders.
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2014An excellent explanation of work sciences and words going as regards to AI, personal identity, and perhaps, life extension. Dr. Rothblatt introduces new terms such as mind clones. Her work on this exciting prospect should be considered as primary, but very thorough. How humans will adapt in the future to changed circumstances, that include copying one's mind into a computer network, leaving traces of oneself scattered over datafiles, and how our friends and relatives and business partners may react to this new change.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2025AI are man made machines and we will never give up the possibility of pulling the plug
- Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2016For Futurists, a well written and compelling argument for digital immortality.
For Christians, a revealing blueprint for "The Beast" of Revelation.
For all, a wake-up call to a future that will be here before you know it.
"Virtually Human" continues the seduction of humanity begun in Eden:
Access to all knowledge and eternal life will make you god-like.
Or, put you on a broad path to the fiery pit of eternal digital Hell.
Your mileage may vary.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2015Absolutely fascinating hypothesis on the possible progression of technology and it's inevitable affect on our lives...the singularity in fastly approaching.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014Rothblatt is a believer- if that's not too strong a word- in Ray Kurzweill's notion of the "Singularity"- the point at which machine intelligence will surpass that of humans, and evolution and the destiny of mankind will be forever changed. Before we reach that point, Rothblatt believes we will reach a point in the very near future in which human minds can be embodied in artificial machines, creating "mind clones." This is a very clever notion, as it sidesteps one of the biggest problems in AI: How do you go from representing propositions in a machine (trivially easy) to embodying an actual conscious mind? Simple, says Rothblatt. You start with an already-existing mind and just transplant it into the machine! This is of course not a trivial thing, but Rothblatt believes that (1) it is possible to create a machine with consciousness (2) we are very close to being able to do that and (3) such a "mind clone" would have far reaching societal and legal implications. "Virtually Human" is therefore divided in to three sections, roughly speaking, each of which addresses one of Rothblatt's contentions.
Rothblatt 's initial task is to argue that It is possible to embody a conscious intelligence in a machine. I am myself predisposed to the idea that AI is possible, but I am also critical of many of the arguments that have been made for AI in the past. Rothblatt tries to address some of the more well-known criticisms of AI, but I don't think she does a particularly convincing job. A major problem with the way she addresses the question is that she never actually defines consciousness, or sets a benchmark for what level of complexity and awareness would be necessary to call an entity conscious. She is sympathetic to the idea of consciousness as a continuum,and cites Douglas Hofsteader's admission that even a mosquito would have a "scintilla" of consciousness. But that's not what most people or researchers mean by consciousness. (One excellent definition I recall went like this: Every living thing has within it a model of the world with which it interacts that enables it to act purposively. When that model becomes complex enough to include the living thing itself, that thing can be said to be concious.)
Rothblatt singles out Gerard Edelman (no relation) as a major critic of AI to be argued against, and to that end she presents a caricature of Edelman's argument but never addresses its core, which is rooted in the notion of experiential consciousness- that consciousness arises from the interaction of a mind with its environment. This idea can be traced back to Wittgenstein's notion of meaning, and the whole question of what philosophers of mind call qualia: How is it that physical sensations are translated into mental constructs? The AI critic most associated with these sorts of criticisms is Herbert Dreyfus, who has apparently escaped Rothblatt's notice. Dreyfus had four main objections, one of which was the ontological objection: Proponents of AI assume that the entirety of the world can be expressed (and is so in the mind) as a series of propositional statements, and the history of AI research since the 1970s suggests that human knowledge cannot be encapsulated in this manner.
Never mind, says Rothblatt, that's only because computers aren't powerful enough yet, but they will be, extrapolating from the last few decades of advances in computer complexity. Once computers are fast enough and have enough memory, we can simply transfer someone's entire store of memories to a computer, creating a virtual duplicate of their mind. How will we do that? We already have, she argues, pointing to the huge repositories of information about self contained in Facebook entires, Tweets, and other social media, and rolls out "Bina48" as a sort of example of what could be done. Yes, Bina48 is not conscious, Rothblatt admits, but with enough memory, a fast enough processor, and a big enough database "she" could become an embodiment of the real Bina. But even if Dreyfus' ontological experiment doesn't hold, how could you transfer a lifetime of experiential knowledge to a machine? Rothblatt does a lot of hand waving here noting that "clearly" the mind clone doesn't have to have the same knowledge represented in the same order to become the same person, and act and react in the same way. Even if you buy that argument (I don't, for a number of reasons) it says nothing about whether the clone is actually self-aware.
The bulk of this book is concerned with the legal and moral implications of mind clones, and it's certainly interesting reading, but it's not very focused. Rothblatt is obviously a very intelligent person with a lot of ideas and opinions, and she tries to squeeze as many as possible into the latter 200+ pages of this book. An index would be helpful, as would tighter organization and a more logical flow. Overall, reading Virtually Human is like listening to a lecture from someone who has a tremendous amount to say but hasn't spent enough time organizing their thoughts and listening to opposing points of view. Those interested in Kurweill notion of the Singularity would be better served by reading his book on the subject. For those interested in the issues of AI it's hard to recommend a beginner's book that looks at all the issues; the Wikipedia article on AI is a very good place to start.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2019great product
- Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2015It is a good read.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015I could go the rest of my life, and would prefer to, without ever hearing the words "mindclone" or "mindware" again. While this book started off with some promise, less than halfway through, it started feeling like Martine Rothblat's 'campaign' to be the architect of the implementation on a wider scale of her whole "mindclone/midware" vision, and little else. If - and only if - it does come to fruition, just as she describes it, than her book may very well be the textbook people turn to. But if it doesn't - well, I think it will make a great doorstop, because there is little other substance to it, in my humble opinion.
Top reviews from other countries
- Elgar VaivarsReviewed in Canada on August 17, 2017
1.0 out of 5 stars Chaotic!
It beat around too many bushes with all sorts of baggage. I haven't finished it yet. I've moved on for now.
- GADReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 1, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Inrteresting book.
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