On Tuesday, March 13, 2018 at 7:42:47 PM UTC-6, John Clark wrote: > > On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 9:18 PM, Lawrence Crowell < > [email protected] <javascript:>> wrote: > > > >> Nope, no thanks. The problem is that I suspect that even if you download >> information from a brain into a AI system that while it might outwardly >> appear to be the person inside the machine, the person in fact no long >> exists. At least I suspect this might be, and even if you interact with >> people in machines and they swear up and down that they exist they are >> simply emulating what they would ordinarily do. >> > > > Well then, can you give me a good reason for me to believe that Lawrence > Crowell actually exists? I don't want to hear you swear up and down that > you do exist, I want you to prove it. > > >> > >> There is a big Pinocchio problem here. >> >> If I were to have my brain preserved this way I would opt to have it >> transplanted into a body or a clone of my body or some such thing. >> > > So I take it you believe in the magical carbon theory, the idea that > particular element has mystical properties that the element silicon lacks > even though the scientific method can not see nothing of the sort. I think > that theory is not only wrong it is lethal to those who adhere to it. > > > John K Clark >
It is not about believing anything. Our brains operate not just as switching systems of neurons, but neurons are themselves biological. The real computer analogue I think extends down to the molecular level, where kinase and other actions are similar to computer chip logic. I think it is a very extreme proposition to advance the idea that emulating a brain on silicon or similar solid state physics systems will conserve consciousness.I can very well imagine this could emulate the brain activity of a person, but I think it is a bit much to voluntarily agree to death so your brain can be uploaded in a machine. I suspect consciousness involves some sort of uncomputable Godel type of number. Without that it could be that any such simulation is just dead processing. I can see some plausible prospect of removing a brain or CNS from a body and putting that in another body. This will not happen successfully any day soon, though there is some Russian who might go through this soon. I could see some prospect of having brains kept in some low level stasis until a transplant body, whether from a person who experience brain death or maybe a body clone of the person, is available. Even there I suspect the experience might be terribly disorienting, as bodies have a sort of "body brain," which involve a dog's brain worth of neurons, and one would not just have a new body so much as you would neurologically negotiate with the new body for a while. I am to a certain extent skeptical of some of these extreme futurist projections. I am not sure many of these things will happen. LC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
