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What would it take to simulate a conscious mind? Several orders of magnitude more processing power than is needed to perform the simple tasks we currently ask

What would it take to simulate a conscious mind? Several orders of magnitude more processing power than is needed to perform the simple tasks we currently ask of AGI, I believe. For example, in another part of biology, DNA seems to be a very inefficient as a data structure and tool for genetic replication. But you’d expect and forgive that from a system that self organized through chance, iteration, and a vast amount of time. Evolution has short horizons and lacks the long term planning required to be economical. Human engineered systems are by contrast far more efficient with their resources. You can now sift through photos of cats and not_cats with a GPU and a few decades of collective technological progress. To get to the stage where a mind, artificial or natural, has self awareness, I can completely believe that it would require the level of processing only made available by a naturally inefficient evolution process. We have minds that are focused on hunting, gathering, procreating, toolmaking, and surviving. Humans have succeeded at doing these things by growing vast brains that only accidentally became good at spotting incoming lions and finding mates. We are lucky that our complex brains evolved in such a way[1] as to allow conscious thought to emerge as a side effect. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_schema_theory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_schema_theory

eteos 7y ago
The theory is that the required technological advancement to create such a simulation is plausible to be achieved in x amount of time, as long as we keep progressing. Could be a thousand or a million years.
- simonh 7y ago
  A counter-theory is that technology will always be constrained by the physical limitations of energy and matter. Given the material resources of a solar system, there's only so much you can do no matter how advanced your technology. Given that constrained matter/energy budget, how much of those resources are going to be devoted to ancestor simulations? Possibly not enough for it to matter. Ok, you can assume an interstellar hegemonic civilization that can consume the resources of a galaxy, but if such a thing were possible how come we haven't already been absorbed by one yet? Ergo such a thing seems to be unlikely to be possible.

eteos 7y ago

The theory is that the required technological advancement to create such a simulation is plausible to be achieved in x amount of time, as long as we keep progressing. Could be a thousand or a million years.

simonh 7y ago
A counter-theory is that technology will always be constrained by the physical limitations of energy and matter. Given the material resources of a solar system, there's only so much you can do no matter how advanced your technology. Given that constrained matter/energy budget, how much of those resources are going to be devoted to ancestor simulations? Possibly not enough for it to matter. Ok, you can assume an interstellar hegemonic civilization that can consume the resources of a galaxy, but if such a thing were possible how come we haven't already been absorbed by one yet? Ergo such a thing seems to be unlikely to be possible.