Alive, or organic AI?

[Saryctos]

If there were to be a procedure that allowed a person to transfer their brain to a new body how would one be able to know if the original person died during the swap? Would there be a way to tell? Would we even care? Assuming all brain function transfered and the body worked the same as before, just no actual person inside.

[Kermit]

Interesting question, really, though a bit more philosophical than scientific or logical. It'd depend on the way you view consciousness in relation to the organism itself.

 

A related topic would be if someone was to become a vegetable in which they lost a lot of brain function but all their other organs worked, such as in that Terri Schiavo case. Is that person dead if they can still blink their eyes or babble aimlessly? Can that person really perceive what's going on around them? Would we know?

[Sisyphus]

I hold to the maxim that defining life is a question for lawyers, not scientists. To answer your question, you have to define what it means for the person to "die," and that is ultimately going to be an arbitrary distinction.

 

Consider: the "you" of today and the "you" of one year ago share almost none of the same actual matter, and so what you've described, a "transfer to a new body," basically takes place constantly. Does that mean you've died?

 

Further, what do you think is the difference between "alive" and "organic AI," as you use the term here? There is no scientific one, I can tell you that. If it looks like a human, works like a human, thinks like a human, then guess what? It's human. Consciousness is an emergent property of the physical processes of the brain, so if, as you posit, the body works the same and all the brain function is the same, then it doesn't make any sense to talk about whether or not there's a "person inside" or not. If you and I have a "person inside," then so does this new copy.

[Saryctos]

Consciousness is an emergent property of the physical processes of the brain' date=' so if, as you posit, the body works the same and all the brain function is the same, then it doesn't make any sense to talk about whether or not there's a "person inside" or not.[/quote']

 

So if we were to create a decive that mimics the phyical processes of the brain exactly, it would have a conciousness?

[Sisyphus]

So if we were to create a decive that mimics the phyical processes of the brain exactly, it would have a conciousness?

 

Sure. How could it not?

[JustStuit]

So if we were to create a decive that mimics the phyical processes of the brain exactly, it would have a conciousness?

Possibly a baby? Just kidding. It would also have to have sensors and recievers and the lot but I wonder if even then it would develope into a concious entity.

[bascule]

Hmmm, I started a thread on this. Read that and tell me how your consciousness wouldn't be transferred.