But I think those are examples of neurons operating normally, not abnormally. Even in the case of mind-influencing drugs, mostly the drugs just affect the brain on its own terms by altering various neurotransmitter levels. On the other hand, a low-level emulation glitch could distort the very rules by which information is processed in the brain.
Note that I am distinguishing “design shortcomings” from “bugs” here.
I don’t quite see how you’d get “the overall rules” wrong. I figure standard software engineering is all that’s required to make sure that the low-level pieces are put together properly. Possibly this is just a failure of imagination on my part, but I can’t think of an example of a defect that is more pervasive than “we got the neuron/axion model wrong.” And if you’re emulating at the neuron level or below, I’d figure that an emulation shortcoming would look exactly like altering neural behavior.
But I think those are examples of neurons operating normally, not abnormally. Even in the case of mind-influencing drugs, mostly the drugs just affect the brain on its own terms by altering various neurotransmitter levels. On the other hand, a low-level emulation glitch could distort the very rules by which information is processed in the brain.
Note that I am distinguishing “design shortcomings” from “bugs” here.
I don’t quite see how you’d get “the overall rules” wrong. I figure standard software engineering is all that’s required to make sure that the low-level pieces are put together properly. Possibly this is just a failure of imagination on my part, but I can’t think of an example of a defect that is more pervasive than “we got the neuron/axion model wrong.” And if you’re emulating at the neuron level or below, I’d figure that an emulation shortcoming would look exactly like altering neural behavior.