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So someone offers to upload your brain into a computer and you go along with it? "In other words," said Benji, steering his curious little vehicle right over t

by m0nty 18y ago

So someone offers to upload your brain into a computer and you go along with it? "In other words," said Benji, steering his curious little vehicle right over to Arthur, "there's a good chance that the structure of the question is encoded in the structure of your brain — so we want to buy it off you." "What, the question?" said Arthur. "Yes," said Ford and Trillian. "For lots of money," said Zaphod. + "No, no," said Frankie, "it's the brain we want to buy." "What!" "I thought you said you could just read his brain electronically," protested Ford. "Oh yes," said Frankie, "but we'd have to get it out first. It's got to be prepared." "Treated," said Benji. "Diced." "Thank you," shouted Arthur, tipping up his chair and backing away from the table in horror. "It could always be replaced," said Benji reasonably, "if you think it's important." "Yes, an electronic brain," said Frankie, "a simple one would suffice." "A simple one!" wailed Arthur. "Yeah," said Zaphod with a sudden evil grin, "you'd just have to program it to say What? and I don't understand and Where's the tea? — who'd know the difference?" "What?" cried Arthur, backing away still further. "See what I mean?" said Zaphod and howled with pain because of something that Trillian did at that moment. "I'd notice the difference," said Arthur. "No you wouldn't," said Frankie mouse, "you'd be programmed not to." Ford made for the door. "Look, I'm sorry, mice old lads," he said. "I don't think we've got a deal."

rplevy 18y ago
For one thing, this would make the free/open versus proprietary software issue a lot more crucial than ever before. I can imagine accepting software updates (for software I have opted into) from a well-run open source project. Of course the idea of mind=software is itself only a very loose metaphor that fails to capture the nuances of development of an embodied mind. But I could imagine some computer extension to the brain that would add new cognitive potentialities to the existing repertoire of brain structures. Who knows, maybe it's not that far off? There are already direct brain interfaces for very simple kinds of control of machines. If a programmable brain extension acts like other high-level brain modules then it should create a new range of abilities rather than dictate a rigid behavior. The former is something that could gain wide acceptance, and the latter would be an unethical way of enslaving people. The unethical rigid control of behavior also seems easier to implement with current knowledge since much more is known about low-level brain and spinal control networks than is known about high-level cortical abstraction.
- m0nty 18y ago
  "Who knows, maybe it's not that far off?" I have a more-or-less open mind, but I can see significant problems. I mean, how many times have we been told that some big new thing is just "five years away" and yet it never arrives? I suspect a rapture-like singularity is not going to happen, but augmentation (which to some extent is already happening) will accelerate in a very interesting way. Anyway, it certainly highlights the ethical side of software engineering, as you point out.

by m0nty 18y ago

rplevy 18y ago

For one thing, this would make the free/open versus proprietary software issue a lot more crucial than ever before. I can imagine accepting software updates (for software I have opted into) from a well-run open source project. Of course the idea of mind=software is itself only a very loose metaphor that fails to capture the nuances of development of an embodied mind. But I could imagine some computer extension to the brain that would add new cognitive potentialities to the existing repertoire of brain structures. Who knows, maybe it's not that far off? There are already direct brain interfaces for very simple kinds of control of machines. If a programmable brain extension acts like other high-level brain modules then it should create a new range of abilities rather than dictate a rigid behavior. The former is something that could gain wide acceptance, and the latter would be an unethical way of enslaving people. The unethical rigid control of behavior also seems easier to implement with current knowledge since much more is known about low-level brain and spinal control networks than is known about high-level cortical abstraction.

m0nty 18y ago
"Who knows, maybe it's not that far off?" I have a more-or-less open mind, but I can see significant problems. I mean, how many times have we been told that some big new thing is just "five years away" and yet it never arrives? I suspect a rapture-like singularity is not going to happen, but augmentation (which to some extent is already happening) will accelerate in a very interesting way. Anyway, it certainly highlights the ethical side of software engineering, as you point out.