DCAWD.com

Someday soon, say tech optimists, humans might be able to upload their consciousness to machines. There it can live forever, get backed up in the cloud, replicated across the planet, downloaded into new hardware whenever needed. Boosters call such a moment "the singularity," since it would represent a point beyond which the human race would be forever and unpredictably altered. Critics, on the other hand, just roll their eyes.

But if, by some miracle, humanity does manage to turn itself into and/or build a host of Cylons, that would be a Pretty Big Change—and things that create Pretty Big Changes should be studied. But even if they cost $150 billion?

That's the argument of Max Tegmark, an MIT physicist, writing for "big questions" site Edge.org. He's not convinced the singularity will arrive, and he's not convinced its arrival would even be a good thing. But he is convinced the singularity would have absolutely stunning consequences for humanity.