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If we take a human and replace one of their neurons with a silicon chip that exactly replicates its electrical activity, is the human any less "conscious"? Pres
by n4r9 5y ago
If we take a human and replace one of their neurons with a silicon chip that exactly replicates its electrical activity, is the human any less "conscious"? Presumably their conscious experience is the same (if not why not?) If the human is still conscious, what if we continue one by one to replace all the neurons with silicon chips in the same way? Where does this thought experiment fail?
- joeberon 5y agoPersonally I think most people who argue consciousness is an emergent property of complicated physical systems would believe that the machine would still be conscious after replacing every neuron with a chip
- slfnflctd 5y agoGiven a sufficiently advanced chip which included all chemical interactions (or effective simulations), why wouldn't they be? If after the transition is complete we determine/decide they aren't conscious, then we have to argue about at what point the 'hybrid' brain ceases to manifest consciousness, and why. Maybe the organic parts would start to change their prior functionality in response to the synthesized parts... but that would suggest we just didn't have a complete enough model of the neuron and we're back to square one. Once that model is complete, there should by definition be no problem, unless you want to argue it can never be complete, for which you then need evidence to convince everyone. I say it's worth continued study.
- lovecg 5y agoOn the topic of simulating neurons, we might be able to simulate the _static_ structure but neurons also move around and make new connections. This video opened my eyes on how far we really are from a realistic simulation: https://youtu.be/CJ3d1FgbmFg https://youtu.be/CJ3d1FgbmFg
- adriand 5y agoMy house is made of bricks. I can confidently remove one of the bricks and replace it with a Kleenex box. The house is still standing, it’s perfectly liveable and no one can tell the difference. Now what happens when I replace all the bricks with Kleenex boxes?
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoYou have a honey-comb structure. Maybe put exactly fitting X-shaped stabilizers into them, before. For safety, and such :)
- n4r9 5y agoAt some point, the structure will collapse or blow over. When that happens depends on the order in which you work, and the weather conditions, but the outcome is at least well-defined and conceptually graspable.