I've been watching this video make the rounds for about two weeks. My first thought upon seeing it was, "How long before Madonna is on the phone with Kurzweil and Kaku to figure out when she can dump her brain into it and plan a new world tour?" Humorous, but hardly kind. Though I'm no fan of Madonna and believe she is narcissistic to the extreme, I also have to admit most of humanity is the same way. If we could push our minds into machines like these, how many of us would and how often?

Let's consider the social side of this. In Future of the Mind, Machio Kaku hypothesizes the future ability to download our brains into machines and live forever. He's not alone in this as Ray Kurzweil and others believe the same thing. Let's take it as truth and consider what might happen.

Like Madonna, I'm unable to do things I used to enjoy when I was younger. Rock climbing is high on that list as my fingers and shoulders would require a great amount of conditioning to get anywhere near my old skill level. Being able to feel that freedom again is very attractive and there, I think, is where technology becomes seductive.

In the  one-season TV show Key West, Jennifer Tilly played local call girl Savannah Summer. In one scene, a disabled wife blindfolds her husband in bed and Summer acts the role of the lover in her place. It's a sad and somewhat stereotyped look at individuals with disabilities, but I'll also bet it mimics events that have happened in real life with real people. What if someone who is disabled could mind dump into a sex robot and offer this level of intimacy - both to give and to receive? I'm fortunate not to be in a wheelchair for life, but it seems more intimate than watching a hooker sex up your spouse from across the room.

So we get there and now paraplegics and quadriplegics and people with other limitations can shift their awareness into a robot. I do the same, taking turns with other climbers to monkey my way up walls in the New River Gorge or Joshua Tree. Then I rent one for a week and climb Everest. I have the option to do it from the comfort of my home or I can physically travel to the base camp and manage it from there. Either way, I get much less of the experience, but also assume much less risk.

Now we're using robots with synthesized touch to travel the world. Able to see, hear and feel through the robot, and possibly smell via digital scent technology, without the risk of wear and tear on my body. No risk of missing planes or corrupt police harassing me about my passport. Less expensive than the real thing, I can do anything with little fear of loss except for the robot itself. Maybe they're expensive, but the prices will drop. International law will have to find ways to prosecute someone for holding up a bodega in Columbia while sitting in their living room in Portland, but Grand Theft Auto theme parks open and we can drive like maniacs and run over hookers for $X per hour. Break any and every law we ever wanted to, including murder, except it's always robots taking the damage.

Would virtual sex and violence cut down on the same in meatspace? It's hard to say, yet it's such an attractive thought. Consider the possibilities, consider the freedom, consider the profit. Suddenly we're Bruce Willis in Surrogates, hiding in our homes and living through artificial bodies. Fearing actual touch and avoiding all risk.

Could it become a sexy taboo, where physically touching a person, smelling the actual breeze off the ocean, and risking jaywalking on a busy street are all rare events, but add an edge to life so we rarely seek out the most dangerous actions? It would be a sad day to see our bodies not use the physical graces humans have developed over millennia of survival. Yet, if our bodies need to survive for a few centuries and are so much more natural or comfortable or we want to hold onto them for sentimental reasons, eliminating most risks makes sense.

If you could dump your mind into a full-sensation robot, would you? What would you use it for?