
If the Samanthas of the future will have inner lives like ours, however, I suspect that we will not be able to upload ourselves to computers to join them in the digital universe. But it would seem probable in both cases. program genuinely felt anything, we can’t be certain that other humans do, either. program like Samantha, your predicament wouldn’t be all that different, especially if that program had been engineered to work like the human brain. In the face of the problem of other minds, all you can do is note that other people have brains that are structurally similar to your own and conclude that since you yourself are conscious, others are likely to be consciousĪs well. You might, after all, be witnessing behavior with no accompanying conscious component. The problem is that although you can know that you yourself are conscious, you cannot know for sure that other people are. This concern is akin to the longstanding philosophical conundrum known as the “problem of other minds.” You might worry that we could never be certain that programs like Samantha were conscious.
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The neural code increasingly seems to be a computational Indeed, scientists have produced silicon-based artificial neurons that can exchange information with real neurons. Just as a phone call and a smoke signal can convey the same information, thoughtĬan have both silicon- and carbon-based substrates. If this is right, then creatures like Samantha can be conscious, for they have the same kind of minds as ours: computational ones. Its opponents point out that our best empirical theory of the brain holds that it is an information-processing system and that all mental functions are computations. This view, however, has been steadily losing ground. Samantha, for to upload your brain to a computer would be to forfeit your consciousness. If this view is correct, then a relationship between a human being and a program like Samantha, however intelligent she might be, would be hopelessly one-sided. programs would be devoid of consciousĮxperience. Some people argue that the capacity to be conscious is unique to biological organisms, so that even superintelligent A.I. Is all of this really possible? Not everyone thinks so. Which artificial intelligence, or A.I., surpasses human intelligence, with unpredictable consequences for civilization and human nature. He and others contend that we are fast approaching the “technological singularity,” a point at Of forming friendships, “Her”-style, with personalized artificial intelligence systems. The futurist Ray Kurzweil, now a director of engineering at Google, has even discussed the potential advantages Program, Synapse, that is trying to develop a computer that resembles a brain in form and function. The Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University has released a report on the technological requirements for uploading a mind to a machine.

Might we humans be able to upload our minds to computers, perhaps to join our digital lovers in the virtual universe?
