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There was a story I read once where general AI was unobtainable but computing power continued so simulations of brains was done via processing brain slices. So

There was a story I read once where general AI was unobtainable but computing power continued so simulations of brains was done via processing brain slices. So every AI was just a person who had died with an intact brain that could be preserved. Self driving cars were a thing but it was someone’s grandma.

klysm 5y ago
How is that different from general AI though?
- quocanh 5y ago
  It would be General Intelligence but it's probably not Artificial General Intelligence in so much as the intelligence aspect wasn't designed and created. It also wouldn't be able to get smarter at the rate of singularity since its intelligence comes from using humans as raw material.
- robbedpeter 5y ago
  General ai would be a unique mind. Simulation doesn't require engineers to understand the process, just that the process works. I can copy a mechanism without scientifically understanding what that mechanism is doing. I can follow a recipe or instructable or copy grandma's brain and have little to no understanding of what's really happening. Then again, if you can copy a genius researcher and put a million of the minds to work on solving agi methodically, you don't need precision and understanding to start with. You just hope the million mind genius collective doesn't lie or mislead.
  - klysm 5y ago
    But the inputs to the simulation are still artificial so I don’t see why it really matters.
    - spartanatreyu 5y ago
      It absolutely matters. Emulating a human mind means copying all off its flaws, biases, and values. An emulated mind probably won't want to nuke the Earth whereas an artificially created and constructed general intelligence may have no qualms in killing both itself and everyone else around it.
wallacoloo 5y ago
if you can recall the author/title i’d love to look at it! i’m curious how the story deals with the disjointed sensory input in the “revived” agent. e.g. does Grandma experience sight/sound/touch/feel? if not, how does she cope with sudden full-body paralysis/numbness/loss-of-familiar-senses? did she agree to this, or know it was going to happen? and so on. i remember one subplot to a Cory Doctorow book focused on a lab that was trying to develop a self-aware machine and the barrier there was that the machine would commit suicide as soon as it understood the broader context of its being. sort of makes me wonder that in order to achieve the sorts of AI you’re talking about, we need not just map the brain but also understand (or bruteforce) enough of it to avoid agent crises. the barrier to that could be larger than just developing a wholly new neural network (idk).
- jimmcslim 5y ago
  There's a few bits in Neal Stephenson's "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell" that explore this. And also, "Lena" by qntm -> https://qntm.org/mmacevedo https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
- ScarletEmerald 5y ago
  It doesn't sound quite like the story the previous poster was thinking of, but Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean le Flambeu series (beginning with The Quantum Thief) has uploaded, edited, and copied human minds as a significant component of the story.
  - gwern 5y ago
    Can't be Quantum Thief, because in Hannu's -verse, AGIs (or 'dragons', IIRC) exist, are actually pretty easy to make, and much smarter than the uploads or derived human brains - so smart that they are far too dangerous for any side to use, and that's why they still run on brains.
- simcop2387 5y ago
  The bobiverse covers this, but is definitely not what the op meant. There's also an arc in the Welcome to nightvale podcast that is similar (using frozen brains) but still different.
geuis 5y ago
This is more or less the premise of the Bobiverse stories.
KevinGlass 5y ago
It's called The Age of Em by Robin Hanson. Here's the wikipedia[1] and a review by a popular blogger[2]. Interesting concept but not a realistic vision of the future. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em [2] https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/28/book-review-age-of-em/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/28/book-review-age-of-em/

klysm 5y ago

How is that different from general AI though?

quocanh 5y ago
It would be General Intelligence but it's probably not Artificial General Intelligence in so much as the intelligence aspect wasn't designed and created. It also wouldn't be able to get smarter at the rate of singularity since its intelligence comes from using humans as raw material.
robbedpeter 5y ago
General ai would be a unique mind. Simulation doesn't require engineers to understand the process, just that the process works. I can copy a mechanism without scientifically understanding what that mechanism is doing. I can follow a recipe or instructable or copy grandma's brain and have little to no understanding of what's really happening. Then again, if you can copy a genius researcher and put a million of the minds to work on solving agi methodically, you don't need precision and understanding to start with. You just hope the million mind genius collective doesn't lie or mislead.
- klysm 5y ago
  But the inputs to the simulation are still artificial so I don’t see why it really matters.
  - spartanatreyu 5y ago
    It absolutely matters. Emulating a human mind means copying all off its flaws, biases, and values. An emulated mind probably won't want to nuke the Earth whereas an artificially created and constructed general intelligence may have no qualms in killing both itself and everyone else around it.

wallacoloo 5y ago

if you can recall the author/title i’d love to look at it! i’m curious how the story deals with the disjointed sensory input in the “revived” agent. e.g. does Grandma experience sight/sound/touch/feel? if not, how does she cope with sudden full-body paralysis/numbness/loss-of-familiar-senses? did she agree to this, or know it was going to happen? and so on. i remember one subplot to a Cory Doctorow book focused on a lab that was trying to develop a self-aware machine and the barrier there was that the machine would commit suicide as soon as it understood the broader context of its being. sort of makes me wonder that in order to achieve the sorts of AI you’re talking about, we need not just map the brain but also understand (or bruteforce) enough of it to avoid agent crises. the barrier to that could be larger than just developing a wholly new neural network (idk).

jimmcslim 5y ago
There's a few bits in Neal Stephenson's "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell" that explore this. And also, "Lena" by qntm -> https://qntm.org/mmacevedo https://qntm.org/mmacevedo
ScarletEmerald 5y ago
It doesn't sound quite like the story the previous poster was thinking of, but Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean le Flambeu series (beginning with The Quantum Thief) has uploaded, edited, and copied human minds as a significant component of the story.
- gwern 5y ago
  Can't be Quantum Thief, because in Hannu's -verse, AGIs (or 'dragons', IIRC) exist, are actually pretty easy to make, and much smarter than the uploads or derived human brains - so smart that they are far too dangerous for any side to use, and that's why they still run on brains.
simcop2387 5y ago
The bobiverse covers this, but is definitely not what the op meant. There's also an arc in the Welcome to nightvale podcast that is similar (using frozen brains) but still different.

geuis 5y ago

This is more or less the premise of the Bobiverse stories.

KevinGlass 5y ago

It's called The Age of Em by Robin Hanson. Here's the wikipedia[1] and a review by a popular blogger[2]. Interesting concept but not a realistic vision of the future. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Em [2] https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/28/book-review-age-of-em/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2016/05/28/book-review-age-of-em/