# Which technology is more likely - downloading consciousness or colonizing another planet

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-technology-is-more-likely-downloading-consciousness-or-colonizing-another-planet/997629>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 16, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-technology-is-more-likely-downloading-consciousness-or-colonizing-another-planet/997629 "2024-02-16T01:04:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 64

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**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-technology-is-more-likely-downloading-consciousness-or-colonizing-another-planet/997629/64 "2024-02-19T20:03:11Z")

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> [@Dorjan](#):
>
> I think we all understand the OP. I’m just saying setting up a permanent base on another planet (call it a proto-colony if you will) is something that is technically in the realm of the achievable today, even if that planet is just our closest solar system neighbor.

Which, I agree, does kind of skew the ‘realm of possibility’ quotient. For instance, while I don’t think there will ever be a human-friendly atmosphere on Mars (no magnetosphere to protect, and hold, an atmosphere - even if we could generate one), I can envision some technology that would essentially be a work around coming to pass at some point. But after Mars, there would need to be a technological jump of many orders of magnitude to reach an earth-like planet around another star. [Getting there alone](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-with-dead-bodies-on-generation-ships/985514), seems [almost insurmountable.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/culture-and-evolution-on-generation-ships/988726)

But Mars is fair game.

> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> I consider “downloading consciousness” to be nearly as inevitable, the main issue is that as this thread demonstrates people don’t even agree on what would count as doing so, which makes predicting it problematic. I’m sure that at some point something that can be defined that way will happen; I’m also sure that there will be a lot of argument over whether the result is the same person or a person at all.

Agree.

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