The wealthy will be able to download their consciousness into computers by 2050 – the not so well off by “2075 or 2080,” claims futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, head of the Futurology unit at BT.

“The new PlayStation is 1 per cent as powerful as a human brain,” he said. “It is into supercomputer status compared to 10 years ago. PlayStation 5 will probably be as powerful as the human brain.”

He also believe it is possible to make a conscious computer with superhuman levels of intelligence before 2020.