Originally posted by TheFallibleFiend:
It's not clear to me that a brain downloaded to a computer is the same consciousness.
IIRC, Daniel Dennett (the philosopher) was talking about trying to create an editor that experienced emotions. I kinda think he was talking out his backside, but I'm not entirely sure.
The idea of robots/AI's as being extensions of us and of human essences being downloaded to machines sounds exactly like Kurzweil's prediction in "The Age of Spiritual Machines."
Ray Kurzweil is a certifiable genius, but the idea seems so far-fetched to me that I almost think he's playing a joke. It's not that he predicts it, but that he says it will happen in the next 25 years or so.
Even brilliant people make mistakes.
Yes, I also find the ''25 years'' unbelievable. But he then, he is making money out of his ideas, and someting happening 25 years from now is a more exciting idea than someting happening 250 years from now.
I think that what matters for consciousness is whether two systems are equivalent in the sense that you can map the possible inputs and outputs of one system to the other and vice versa. So, I can interact with you but I could also interact with a digital version of you and I shouldn't notice any relevant differences between the two systems.
