To Upload is to Live Forever: Explicating the Eschatological Implications of Mind-Uploading in Neal Stephenson’s Fall or, Dodge in Hell

Abstract

The article seeks to analyze the apocalyptic and eschatological dimensions of mind uploading  that is, transferring of mind and consciousness from a biological to a computational substrate as described in Neal Stephenson’s novel Fall; or, Dodge in Hell (2019) primarily from a Christian religious perspective. The first section will deal with the implications of uploading of mind and consciousness to a nonbiological digital substrate, the second will look into the idea of the soul in a digital world and see how it relates to the traditional Christian and also non-Christian concepts soul, afterlife and immortality; and lastly, the third section will depict how the idea of digital reincarnation of God has been employed in the novel and in what ways it differs from or conforms to the traditional picture of a Judeo-Christian deity.