From human brain to silicon brain

[zombieSquirrel]

I have a couple of questions.

 

First one. How far along are we in the development of a "silicon brain", and how long do you think it will be before we are capable of bonding a computer to a human brain in a way that it acts as a part of the brain?

 

Second one. If we do bond a person's brain to a computer of similar capabilities, and then during a decade or two of living like this, his/her biological brain slowly dies off, until it's just the artificial brain. Will she/he be the same conscious being, or will it be a different consciousness that took over as the previous one failed?

[bascule]

First one. How far along are we in the development of a "silicon brain"

 

The best example of one is probably the BlueBrain project:

 

http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/

 

and how long do you think it will be before we are capable of bonding a computer to a human brain in a way that it acts as a part of the brain?

 

That's already happening with various Brain/Computer Interfaces. Electrodes implanted into the brain and connected to a computer have given patients basic keyboard-like functionality without the need to move a single muscle.

 

Second one. If we do bond a person's brain to a computer of similar capabilities, and then during a decade or two of living like this, his/her biological brain slowly dies off, until it's just the artificial brain. Will she/he be the same conscious being, or will it be a different consciousness that took over as the previous one failed?

 

That's a philosophical question about identity and one which is probably best asked in the philosophy forum.

 

My opinion is if we slowly replaced the neurons in your brain with artificial replacements that behaved more or less identically to their biological counterparts, and did this gradually over time, you'd end up with the same person with an artificial brain.

[zombieSquirrel]

Wow, we're getting pretty far in that area of research. Thanks.

 

That's a philosophical question about identity and one which is probably best asked in the philosophy forum.

 

The philosophy forum isn't available to me yet.

[Mr Skeptic]

The philosophy forum isn't available to me yet.

 

Just ask one of the mods. You've been around for a while, so I'm sure they'll let you in. Or, you could just make more posts (outside of the sections that don't count like General Discussion).

[Icefire]

just another note; there is some research being done in making carbon-based microprocessors, so full silicone brains may never happen.

I agree that over time one would just end up with an artificial brain and maybe the same personality/memories. although once the personality becomes more artificial it would no longer have to deal with the limitations with the biological brain, and so it may evolve in ways not understood. there's a book that would be relevant to this change, but i'm having a hard time recalling the title (something that the evolution is easily guessed)

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Found it: The Terminal Experiment by Robert J Sawyer.