I see some comments hinting at towards this pseudo-argument, but I don’t think I saw anyone make it explicitly:
Say I replace one neuron in my brain with a little chip that replicates what that neuron would have done. Say I replace two, three, and so on, until my brain is now completely artificial. Am I still conscious, or not? If not, was there a sudden cut-off point where I switched from conscious to not-conscious, or is there a spectrum and I was gradually moving towards less and less conscious as this transformation occurred?
If I am still conscious, what if we remove my artificial brain, put it in a PC case, and just let it execute? Is that not a simulation of me? What if we pause the chips, record each of their exact states, and instantiate those same states in another set of chips with an identical architecture?
If there consciousness is a spectrum instead of a sudden cut off point, how confident are we that “simulations” of the type that you’re claiming are “not” (as in 0) conscious, aren’t actually 0.0001 conscious?
I see some comments hinting at towards this pseudo-argument, but I don’t think I saw anyone make it explicitly:
Say I replace one neuron in my brain with a little chip that replicates what that neuron would have done. Say I replace two, three, and so on, until my brain is now completely artificial. Am I still conscious, or not? If not, was there a sudden cut-off point where I switched from conscious to not-conscious, or is there a spectrum and I was gradually moving towards less and less conscious as this transformation occurred?
If I am still conscious, what if we remove my artificial brain, put it in a PC case, and just let it execute? Is that not a simulation of me? What if we pause the chips, record each of their exact states, and instantiate those same states in another set of chips with an identical architecture?
If there consciousness is a spectrum instead of a sudden cut off point, how confident are we that “simulations” of the type that you’re claiming are “not” (as in 0) conscious, aren’t actually 0.0001 conscious?