This article was originally published in Dutch in 2014 and has been translated and updated in October 2026.
Humans have finished evolving. Robots are on the rise, and if we don’t want to lose out, we will have to keep developing ourselves. But how are we going to make that happen?
Neuroscientist Randal Koene came up with an answer. Instead of letting robots control us, people should partly turn into robots themselves. Koene first encountered the idea of the immortal human at the age of 13, when he read the book ‘The City and the Stars’. The idea moved him so deeply that he was prepared to devote his whole life to it. At the time this article was written, in 2014, Koene was CEO of three companies working on neuroscientific research. One of the most ambitious projects was the development of ‘the independent mind’.
Scientists are 99.9% certain that our brains work like a mechanism. Brains are programmable. If you can work out how the brain programs itself, why shouldn’t you be able to build a replica of it? In 2014, Koene was developing a method that would one day allow us to upload our minds to a computer (or a robot). His biggest challenge: mapping some 100 billion brain cells and translating how they work into code. If that succeeds, humans could, in theory, become immortal.
Don’t body and brain need each other to develop an identity of their own?
According to Randal Koene, we develop our own identity through our memories. You make choices based on things you have done before, or on things you once saw someone else do. All of this is recorded by the brain. In principle, then, you could put your ‘old’ brain in a new body and still wear the same clothes, do your hair the same way and listen to the same music.
When will the first human brain be uploaded?
Scientists have already managed to upload the brain of a worm, although a worm’s brain works differently from ours. In 2014, the expectation was that the brain of a fruit fly could be uploaded within ten years. That prediction has partly come true: in October 2024, researchers published the first complete wiring diagram of an adult fruit fly brain, mapping 139,255 neurons and some 50 million synapses. That is a map rather than a working upload, but it is an important step. How long it will take before a human brain can be uploaded successfully, nobody yet dares to say.
Developments in artificial intelligence are not standing still. Even back in 2014, companies such as Google were investing billions in the field. We can certainly expect breakthroughs in the years ahead. Whether we as a society can cope with them remains to be seen. History shows that societies are flexible enough to absorb disruptive innovations. Yet the innovations awaiting us in the coming years go beyond almost anyone’s imagination. We are waiting for human 4.0.
Will we gradually turn more and more into robots in the years to come? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below.