I’ve just read the fifth book in the Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor, Not Till We Are Lost. This series is an excellent example of the “brain uploading” science fiction trope.

But what is the brain uploading trope? What are similar tropes that can have the same outcome? And where else do we see it used in fiction?

The brain uploading trope involves humans developing the technology (or ability) to store human brains outside of human bodies. This could be in a computer drive, cloud storage, a crystal matrix, or even in the fabric of space and time itself (like in 2001: A Space Odyssey).

Note: the next paragraphs contain spoilers! Skip to here to get your reading/viewing list of great stories that use this trope, without spoilers.

What tropes are similar to brain uploading?

In the “uploading” form this trope is found in sci fi. However, there is a similar trope, “ascending to a higher plane of existence” which crops up in both sci fi and fantasy.  The main difference with these variants is in “ascending” there can be magical or spiritual pathways to getting out of the human body, but the end result is basically the same. A human existing somewhere else than in their original biological body.

Brain uploading: a philosophical playground

There’s a lot of great philosophical dilemmas which the brain uploading trope raises. For example, theories of human consciousness question whether it’s the “same” person after uploading. If there is a discontinuity between the “before” and “after,” the original “you” is gone, and it’s a copy that lives on.

The sci fi comedy TV show Upload plays with this question really nicely. People who have chosen to “upload” and have a pleasant afterlife in a digital world must have their heads exploded in the process of uploading, so that there is only one copy of the person in existence.

Of course, as the series progresses, this goes awry, and the characters have to deal with the fact that there are multiple copies of people walking about, where there should only be one.

When “there can be only one” goes out the window

In the Bobiverse series, main character Bob Johansson has his bran scanned (after death) and uploaded into a computer storage device. The goal is to become a Von Neumann machine that can explore space. The Bobiverse takes the question of continuity down another pathway.

Instead of Highlander style “there can be only one,” Bob clones himself into new Bobs. Not just once, but over, and over, and over again. As the series progresses, they build a whole society out of Bobs. A concept called “replicant drift” slowly results in different personalities for the various Bob characters.

It you’ve never read Bobiverse, it’s a funny, modern take on many classic sci fi tropes. The series explores ringworlds, discovering alien races, and more, all through the point of view of the immortal Bobs who are infinitely curious about the universe. Thoroughly recommended.

Backing up human souls for resurrection

Inevitably, the brain uploading trope often involves backing up a human “soul” in the case of accidental biological death. One of our Book Blasts from April 2025, Frostbyte, by N.S. Chaudhury, is based on this concept.

Unlike in Upload or Bobiverse, in Frostbyte, humans who have died are restored into new bodies. (Or “biocons” – short for biological containers.) Upload eventually plays with this concept too. However, attempts to get people back into a biological brain go head-explodingly wrong initially.

The TV series The 100 plays with the brain uploading trope in multiple ways. The series introducing the philosophical question of whether uploaded life is real life with the “City of Light” plotline. This plotline sees an AI, A.L.I.E, trying to convince the remaining humans on Earth to join the City of Light. In this virtual space, many pre-apocalypse humans have been stored safely despite most of the population being subsequently wiped out.

Live on in the fabric of space and time

The final plotline of the series sees this idea come back again, but in the “ascending to a higher plane of existence” version of the trope. Aliens offer the remaining humans (and by now, there ain’t many of them, because, well, that’s The 100) the chance to join the aliens as energy beings, similar to the aliens of the closing sequence in 2001: A Space Odessey by Arthur C. Clarke and Downwards To The Earth by Robert Silverberg. By giving up their biological form, the humans transfer their essence to the fabric of space and time itself, transcending physical needs. 

Brain uploading trope: reading and viewing list

Here’s your spoiler-free list of great books with the brain uploading trope:

• The Bobiverse series, by Dennis E. Taylor
• 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke
• Downward to the Earth, by Robert Silverberg
• Frostbyte, by N.S. Chaudhury

And some fantastic TV shows that play with this idea:

• Upload
• The 100

The brain uploading trope, while simple on the surface, offers a huge variety of philosophical and storyline challenges, making it fertile ground for science fiction.