this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
557 points (97.1% liked)
Socialism
5175 readers
1 users here now
Rules TBD.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
In that case I think it would heavily rely on the whole "everything critical is duplicated in software" part. It's the same ship of theseus, just one level up - instead of neurons and pathways, it's entire sections of the brain. If my biological short term memory withers away from dementia, boom, the chip already has that capability backed up and running. If my long term memory starts going because of Alzheimers, boom, also have those uploaded to the cloud on demand. Got ALS? Motor functions already rerouted through the chip.
At no point is the entire biological brain destroyed at once and "transferred"; there is a continuity of consciousness throughout the process, a continuity of self and pattern. That's the part most critical to me.
Yeah this. Doesn't particularly if it's neuron by neuron or larger scale repairs. So long as not too much is replaced at once, and everything is backed up in software before very the switch, then I'd still be mostly me. I can't imagine the changes wouldn't change my personality, capabilities, etc, but I feel like I'd still be me so long as nothing fucks up in the process. Much better than whole brain backup/cloning, even with neuron-by-neuron copy+destruction.
EDIT: where it gets sketchy is handling conscious (especially internal monologue) and nearly conscious sections. Those would need to be replaced at a slow rate IMO.