What defines being human, Mar?
I get that.. let me try to explain a bit further...
Scientifically, you and I are a collection of cells that interoperate with one another to form a complete organism. Within your brain you have literally billions of these cells that form what's called a neural network; or in other words, a network of neurons, that gives you, the organism, an ability to do computational work. We call this ability to solve problems intelligence.
Your brain works with sensory inputs like your eyes, eyes, nose, sense of touch, and also has data stores (again within the neural network) to retrieve previous experiences from. We can use the combination of problem solving, sensory input, and memory to learn and act rather than simply reacting to stimuli. We call this collective ability cognition.
At a certain point; our organism evolved to such an extent that the degree to which we are intelligence, emotion, cognition has manifested a conscious mind. Or, in other words, consciousness is an emergent quality of a specific set of qualities within your brain. Consciousness is a thing that exists on the platform that is your brain, is emergent from it, and is somewhat distinct from the specific functions the brain would perform on a lower level.
Beyond this though, we really don't understand what the consciousness is. We have no idea beyond the basic understanding of how our brains work; which doesn't begin to address some of these questions - many of which are philosophical (at this point).
But with this basic (and incomplete) understanding of the human brain and human consciousness we can start to tackle the larger question of an artificial (human) consciousness.
So Mar... thinking about the structure of your brain; let's engage in a thought experiment (Ship of Theseus):
Let's say we develop an artificial neuron, complete with wetware axons, dendrites, etc; essentially a drop-in replacement for your biological neurons.
And let's say you sign up for neuron replacement therapy; which would be a new medical technique to replace your biological brain with these artificial neurons.
You go in for your first appointment with the doctor; he sits you down on the table; pulls out a long needle, and injects a fluid (a suspension of these nanomachines) into your skull. You feel some pressure, and you get a bit of a headache but, other than that you're fine. He tells you to go home and get some rest and don't worry about it..
You repeat the treatment the following week; and every week thereafter for two years; 104 treatments total.
After your 104th treatment, you say "see you next week doc" and he informs you that you're done. There's nothing more for him to do. You ask him what he means and he tells you, you no longer have any biological neurons to replace, your brain is entirely artificial running on billions of small computational devices (the artificial neurons).
You think to yourself, well, am I still the same person?
You never noticed yourself changing... nothing really happened. Yet your brain is gone... completely. Yet you still exist.
The reason this is the case is because you, Mar, are not your brain; you are the emergent consciousness that has manifested itself from your brain. The brain is essentially the PC, yet your consciousness is the highly customized and tricked out operating system running on top of it.
Now... take this concept and think about it from another angle.
If the artificial neurons didn't exist in physical space as you might expect, but instead were simulated in a virtual machine; would that make any difference?
Let me know if you have any questions..
