An interesting thought experiment is to imagine an incredibly-detailed computer simulation of a brain, down to the level of individual cells and neurotransmitters. (While this is beyond our current capabilities, it is in principle possible.) Hook the brain up to some decent IO devices, and you’d have an extremely human-like “AI”. (I’m glossing over some tricky details like, do you start with a fetus/baby brain and let it grow up, or somehow clone an existing brain...tricky no doubt, but again, in principle solvable.)
So the question is, this simulated brain, which is behaving very similarly indeed to a biological brain: does it have consciousness? Does it feel?
On the one hand, you might argue of course not, it’s just a computer; computers “obviously” don’t have feelings. It’s just bunch of bits. A precise collection of patterns of electrical charges evolving in time according to rigid rules.
On the other hand, is our own biological brain any different? We don’t think of a few cells as having consciousness, but somehow the broader collection does. Can the biological substrate of the complex arrangements really matter?
Maybe consciousness is like a “soul”, it’s a completely untestable, untouchable “ghost” that can inhabit anything. So maybe everything really does feel, in its own way? Maybe my computer already has some form of consciousness...
So the question is, this simulated brain, which is behaving very similarly indeed to a biological brain: does it have consciousness? Does it feel?
On the one hand, you might argue of course not, it’s just a computer; computers “obviously” don’t have feelings. It’s just bunch of bits. A precise collection of patterns of electrical charges evolving in time according to rigid rules.
On the other hand, is our own biological brain any different? We don’t think of a few cells as having consciousness, but somehow the broader collection does. Can the biological substrate of the complex arrangements really matter?
Maybe consciousness is like a “soul”, it’s a completely untestable, untouchable “ghost” that can inhabit anything. So maybe everything really does feel, in its own way? Maybe my computer already has some form of consciousness...