Post B5otDLmQY63m6NSoam by futurebird@sauropods.win
 (DIR) More posts by futurebird@sauropods.win
 (DIR) Post #B5otDLmQY63m6NSoam by futurebird@sauropods.win
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       This is not what the people who say the word AI right now are doing at all. But let's consider a one-to-one physics based simulation of the brain of a cat. It couldn't run in real time like a living cat. It would be very slow, but you could give it reasonable inputs and get responses similar to how a cat might react (the only reason not to do a human mind is size, this is going to take so much computing to do very little)Is it conscious like a cat?I lean on a hard YES.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otDM6HMHwJ5wkfXE by futurebird@sauropods.win
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       And I will follow that with: destroying the simulation carries similar moral weight to killing a cat.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otDMRu3tEkB0rwEy by jmax@mastodon.social
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       @futurebird Yeahbut. The classic moral quandary of killing is, in Gandalf's words: "Can you give life to those who deserve it? Then do not be so quick to take it."In your scenario, we can bring the cat back. I think that alters the balance. I haven't figured out how, to my satisfaction, but I think it matters.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otDMctP21kj60iMy by futurebird@sauropods.win
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       OK, making a simulation like that where you model every bit of matter in the brain of a cat is probably beyond our understanding of matter and more to the point it's slow and will take too many computers to run. Simulations are supposed to be smaller simplified versions of the real things they represent. You could probably simplify the model. Remove bits and replace them with simplified modules that have the same results 99.9 percent of the time.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otDMnAmoFbEyovOS by futurebird@sauropods.win
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       @jmax I think that's a great point. However, with a system of that size it's not like there is a little save file you can load again. Destroying it really is destroying something forever that you can't get back due to the size.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otDN7jYMhIGkRLRQ by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
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       @futurebird @jmax but even if you could back it up, this opens an entire can of philosophical and ethical worms. Good thing there are philosophers working on these worms, and good thing we're nowhere near stimulating a cat and hopefully won't be for a few more decades.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otLLEYSpgCixQleq by welbog@kind.social
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       @futurebird Yes. I fail to see why the speed of computation impacts its consciousness. It would be slow, from our perspective, but from its perspective it would be thinking cat thoughts at normal speed. Greg Egan's novels almost always feature something like this, where characters are careful not to simulate other being at too high a fidelity lest they become conscious. This isn't about speed, but rather how accurate the simulations are.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otLLQFlL2NJEu6tM by futurebird@sauropods.win
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       @welbog Greg is on here! @gregkh dude makes some really good posts about interesting math.
       
 (DIR) Post #B5otLLat7nXnqDsbT6 by IngaLovinde@embracing.space
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       @futurebird @welbog @gregkh that's Linux Greg, not hard science fiction Greg! Two very different Gregs