ToKCast

Ep 59: The Nexus

Apr 23, 2021
A wide-ranging dive into what makes someone a person through evolution, computation, and knowledge creation. It contrasts plant and animal sensing, explains computation and quantum computation, and shows how brains can be simulated. It treats persons as software-like explainers that persist through change and explores multiversal fungibility and the abstract nature of personhood.
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INSIGHT

Simulated Brains Count As Persons

  • Because the brain is a physical system, in principle a quantum computer can simulate it.
  • A simulation of the brain that reproduces its computations would thereby be a person.
ADVICE

Prepare Ethics Before Simulating Minds

  • Anticipate moral hazards before building full brain simulations and set ethical safeguards.
  • Avoid switching simulations on or off without solutions for consciousness and suffering.
INSIGHT

Understanding Is Computation

  • Understanding equals a computation: minds create explanations by modeling the world.
  • That makes comprehension a physical process implementable by computation.
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