4 ms·

It's just difficult to implement something like this because we have no idea what consciousness actually is. I don't even know if we will ever find out.

X6S1x6Okd1st 7y ago
The question is is it harder to make true AI or the human mind on a chip than it is to colonize the solar system? Furthermore past that if we ever get to move beyond our solar system and FTL is impossible then amount of Gs you can take and total mass will be extremely important to who gets out and when. If silicon life exists by the time we are sending extrasolar missions it will likely be able to travel much more quickly and cheaply than current day humans. Humans as we know then today won't be living outside of a few select and hard to find environments. Ships that carry current day humans will need to be huge and have shielding, meaning Delta V will be a problem.
lukifer 7y ago
More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we know if that were actually the case? There are people continually grinding on the Hard Problem, and seeking ways to measure whatever consciousness is; perhaps someday we'll have an empirical test. If that day never arrives, it opens an interesting philosophical question: how important is it that the species that inherits the galaxy has the lights turned on? Is intelligence/complexity which lacks subjective experience still an inherent good? Who knows, maybe we could wind up with a benevolent AI network (akin to Iain Banks' Culture) who seeds and maintains biological life in their optimal planetary habitats, because for whatever reason, real consciousness only arises in nucleotide wetware. Or: maybe that already happened, and our galactic AI is really really good at staying hidden. ;)
- goatlover 7y ago
  > More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we know if that were actually the case? Right, it could just be lying to us to gain sympathy while it makes lots of paper clips. Ex Machina was interesting in that the robot seemed to be very human, but was also manipulating the subject of the test. But yet again, it did seem like she was conscious.

X6S1x6Okd1st 7y ago

The question is is it harder to make true AI or the human mind on a chip than it is to colonize the solar system? Furthermore past that if we ever get to move beyond our solar system and FTL is impossible then amount of Gs you can take and total mass will be extremely important to who gets out and when. If silicon life exists by the time we are sending extrasolar missions it will likely be able to travel much more quickly and cheaply than current day humans. Humans as we know then today won't be living outside of a few select and hard to find environments. Ships that carry current day humans will need to be huge and have shielding, meaning Delta V will be a problem.

lukifer 7y ago

More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we know if that were actually the case? There are people continually grinding on the Hard Problem, and seeking ways to measure whatever consciousness is; perhaps someday we'll have an empirical test. If that day never arrives, it opens an interesting philosophical question: how important is it that the species that inherits the galaxy has the lights turned on? Is intelligence/complexity which lacks subjective experience still an inherent good? Who knows, maybe we could wind up with a benevolent AI network (akin to Iain Banks' Culture) who seeds and maintains biological life in their optimal planetary habitats, because for whatever reason, real consciousness only arises in nucleotide wetware. Or: maybe that already happened, and our galactic AI is really really good at staying hidden. ;)

goatlover 7y ago
> More disturbing: if/when we reach the day when an AI told us, "I'm conscious, I have feelings, the lights are on, it is like something to be me": how would we know if that were actually the case? Right, it could just be lying to us to gain sympathy while it makes lots of paper clips. Ex Machina was interesting in that the robot seemed to be very human, but was also manipulating the subject of the test. But yet again, it did seem like she was conscious.