Heading to CES? Don’t miss Netflix’s exclusive pre-screening of Altered Carbon, your next sci-fi obsession

Altered Carbon, Netflix’s new action-packed sci-fi series, is set in a futuristic world where the new currency is life itself. With mankind able to download both consciousness and memories from body to body, death is obsolete—for those who can afford not to die, at least.

If you’re heading to Las Vegas for CES, get in on the action with a special screening of Altered Carbon on Thursday, 1/11 at 12pm at the Aria Hotel (Bristlecone 4 Room). Be sure to RSVP here as seating is limited.

Reality isn’t far behind Altered Carbon’s sci-fi vision

With a premise that lends itself to stunning visuals and a sci-fi plot that makes us question what it means to be human, to say we’re excited for this Netflix original series is an understatement. Netflix’s Altered Carbon is based on the 2002 classic cyberpunk sci-fi novel by Richard K. Morgan; fast-forward to 2018, when we’ve reached a time and place in the evolution of A.I. that makes the show’s central theme of brain augmentation a new reality.

Elon Musk launched Neuralink last year, shifting his focus from how we’ll get around (both on Earth and on the interstellar highway) to how we’ll be more highly evolved humans. Focused on developing brain-computer interfaces, Neuralink hopes to make the sci-fi famous concept of “neural lace” a reality.

Within our lifetimes, our brains could be enhanced by software to optimize both biological and technological functioning. Neauralink hopes to develop successful new treatments for severe brain trauma within the next four years. Bionic brains, anyone?

Facebook has also teased brain-computer interface projects over the past year. The next evolution of the platform built on connection may be in an interface that lets us type with our minds.

Optical image scans up to a hundred times per second could hold the key to capturing text directly from your mind. Regina Dugan, head of Facebook’s R&D division Building 8 is confident that we could be typing 5X faster than today’s average rate on a smartphone. Are we living into a time when texting will seem antiquated?

The future of A.I. depends on human intelligence

This isn’t a one-way street, though. In addition to using technology to optimize brain function and mitigate disease, scientists are focused on unlocking the mysteries of the human brain—a supercomputer in its own right. The brain’s biochemistry may hold the key to replicating human intelligence in A.I.

Achieving an evolutionary breakthrough that would allow us to rival the dazzling version of mankind on display in Altered Carbon will require more than a few crazy-sounding ideas. While our real world attempts at living forever are just scratching the surface of Altered Carbon, there’s no shortage of inspiration to be had in binging on Netflix’s latest sci-fi wonder.