Identity (Identity)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, September 06, 2009, 15:26 (5340 days ago) @ dhw

My thanks to David for correcting me on the Abiogenesis thread, and to Matt for the fascinating article on building a model brain. I note in the latter that "the biggest challenge is to understand how electric-magnetic-chemical patterns in the brain convert into our perception of reality." The author might have added consciousness, emotion, memory etc.-Well, I mentioned earlier that in forty years (barring some physical constraint, such as what has limited processor speeds to around 3.0Ghz) our ability to create grid computers will result in a machine that is more powerful than the human brain. The article I linked here is the first step towards trying to model the human brain as completely as possible. Once we have enough computing power, this becomes feasible, and breaking that computational barrier is step one. (As a basic rule if you're going to emulate a processor, you want something at least 4x more powerful for it to run smoothly.) -If the suspicion of many a researcher is correct and a consciousness arises from this machine without direct intervention by a human being, it will resolve the origin of consciousness question. This, is a big deal. Do we then grant such sentient machines the same rights as humans?

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"