Silicon Valley billionaire Sam Altman, 32, has paid a company, Nectome, $10K to kill him then have his brain uploaded to a cloud. No, this is not the next episode of Black Mirror. This really happened.
Altman, the president of Y Combinator, an American seed accelerator, is one of 25 people on a waiting list for the privilege of having Nectome connect them, according to MIT Technology Review, “to a heart-lung machine in order to pump its mix of scientific embalming chemicals into the big carotid arteries in their necks while they are still alive.
” Sounds pleasant.The product is “100 percent fatal,” says Nectome’s cofounder, Robert McIntyre. “That is why we are uniquely situated among the Y Combinator companies.” That’s certainly one way of describing it.
The reason for why Netcome has to hook you up to a death machine is because the brain needs to be “fresh” in order for them to upload it.
Nectome’s storage service is not yet for sale and may not be for several years. Also still lacking is evidence that memories can be found in dead tissue. But the company has found a way to test the market. Following the example of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, it is sizing up demand by inviting prospective customers to join a waiting list for a deposit of $10,000, fully refundable if you change your mind.
So far, 25 people have done so. One of them is Sam Altman, a 32-year-old investor who is one of the creators of the Y Combinator program. Altman tells MIT Technology Review he’s pretty sure minds will be digitized in his lifetime. “I assume my brain will be uploaded to the cloud,” he says.
