# Consciousness Can Be Represented in Digital Form by Stephen Wolfram > “Given the Principle of Computational Equivalence I have to believe that our minds—our consciousness—can perfectly well be represented in purely digital form. So, OK, at some point the future of our civilization might be basically a trillion souls in a box. There’ll be a complicated mixing of the alien intelligence of AI with the future of human intelligence.” > **— Stephen Wolfram**, *“A World Run with Code,” May 2, 2019* ## Sources and Context - **Primary source:** [Stephen Wolfram, “A World Run with Code”](https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/05/a-world-run-with-code/) — verifies the wording, attribution and immediate source setting. - **Interpretive context:** Wolfram grounds the claim in his Principle of Computational Equivalence and follows it into two consequences: a civilization containing vast populations of digital minds and a mixing of artificial and human intelligence. The full passage therefore connects substrate independence to civilizational form. - **Editorial treatment:** The three consecutive source sentences are reproduced exactly apart from house punctuation. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host Is Reusable and the Person Is the Delta]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Digital Minds|Digital Minds]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Stephen Wolfram|Stephen Wolfram]] - [[wiki/Substrate Independence|Substrate Independence]] - [[wiki/Digital Minds|Digital Minds]] - [[wiki/Mind Uploading|Mind Uploading]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Given the Principle of Computational Equivalence I have to believe that our minds—our consciousness—can perfectly well be represented in purely digital form. So, OK, at some point the future of our civilization might be basically a trillion souls in a box. There’ll be a complicated mixing of the alien intelligence of AI with the future of human intelligence.” — Stephen Wolfram, “A World Run with Code,” May 2, 2019 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-stephen-wolfram-consciousness-digital-form ```