A U.S. start-up company hopes to offer a novel process for preserving human brains. Nectome, founded by artificial intelligence researchers, is investigating whether its process could be used to upload people’s brains to the cloud. The current flaw in Nectome’s plan is that its technique must be the cause of death. In essence, it must kill the person for the brain to be preserved. The company has yet to demonstrate an uploaded brain, but it poses the question: Has cloud computing gone too far?
Cloud computing, and the resulting as-a-service business model, has drastically changed the way many organizations operate. Whether it’s a product, software or even artificial intelligence, you can now rent it.
The cloud offers a myriad of benefits to manufacturers, as connected systems that are able to communicate across the internet can be easily integrated. Hardware costs and investment in information technology (IT) infrastructure are drastically reduced, which means companies don’t need to invest in their own data centers.
With a cloud-based maintenance application, there’s also no need for time-consuming or costly updates. The cloud provider updates and maintains the server as well as the application software. Reduced upfront costs can make this an extremely attractive option for small businesses.
