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Assuming that what we define as conscientiousness is just the way neurons connect to each other and the content of these neurons then as long as the neurons don

by Fuxy 13y ago

Assuming that what we define as conscientiousness is just the way neurons connect to each other and the content of these neurons then as long as the neurons don't die your conscientiousness, personality, identity should not be altered. That also means the the brain could be copied and we could be able to preserve people's conscientiousness. How cool would it be if after you die you would still be able to exist as part of a vast network of interconnected brains able to manipulate virtual reality. Who need AI when you could just upload yourself :) Edit: Or you could clone yourself which is where it gets a bit weird since a clone would not be you and left to its own devices it would develop it's own conscientiousness, personality, identity however what would happen if you imprinted your neural pattern onto the clone. Would that be a new person or just you in a new body.

jakobe 13y ago
> That also means the the brain could be copied Unfortunately, no, it doesn't, because there is no way we can "read" a brain. "Reading" tiny parts of a brain is possible, but requires destruction of a lot of other parts. We have billions of neurons, and each neuron has connections to thousands of other neurons, and all of that is mashed together in a lump of gray mass. Scientists today can map the structure of a handful of neurons in a single brain. A typical procedure might involve perfusing the organism with a chemical that plastifies the brain, and then cutting slices out of the brain. Besides the fact that these mappings are just tiny 2D recordings of a tiny sliver of the full 3D brain, they are not precise enough to actually simulate the neurons. The connections between Neurons, the synapses, are so tiny that you need extremely complicated microscopes to see them, and you have to be fast because the light from the microscope actually destroys what you are looking at... And, of course, the mice these brains come from will have some genetic modification that makes their cells phosporescent so you can see parts of them better.

by Fuxy 13y ago

jakobe 13y ago

> That also means the the brain could be copied Unfortunately, no, it doesn't, because there is no way we can "read" a brain. "Reading" tiny parts of a brain is possible, but requires destruction of a lot of other parts. We have billions of neurons, and each neuron has connections to thousands of other neurons, and all of that is mashed together in a lump of gray mass. Scientists today can map the structure of a handful of neurons in a single brain. A typical procedure might involve perfusing the organism with a chemical that plastifies the brain, and then cutting slices out of the brain. Besides the fact that these mappings are just tiny 2D recordings of a tiny sliver of the full 3D brain, they are not precise enough to actually simulate the neurons. The connections between Neurons, the synapses, are so tiny that you need extremely complicated microscopes to see them, and you have to be fast because the light from the microscope actually destroys what you are looking at... And, of course, the mice these brains come from will have some genetic modification that makes their cells phosporescent so you can see parts of them better.