While placebo effects may account for some of the proposed therapeutic uses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), there is now little doubt that TMS actually does affect neural activity in highly constrained fashion. To me one of the most convincing demonstrations is the ability of TMS to reliably evoke motor responses in specific finger muscles via stimulation at varying locations over motor cortex.
While finger twitches are not so impressive in terms of potentially major consequences, speech arrest (TMS over left frontal cortex) is far more striking, if very temporary. TMS, applied at unacceptably high levels, could definitely "distort the mind" just as direct application of a comparable electrical field would - or for that matter injury or surgery. However, existing literature on focal lesions is not as clear-cut as your post suggests: our predictive power at the individual level is still very low even for highly well-known conditions.
I do agree with the central thesis: human brains are fragile and certain networks, if damaged, can have extreme consequences. But they're not so predictably fragile.
upvoted.
We are familiar with the thesis that Value is Fragile. This is why we are researching how to impart values to an AGI.
Embedded Minds are Fragile
Besides values, it may be worth remembering that human minds too are very fragile.
A little magnetic tampering with your amygdalas, and suddenly you are a wannabe serial killer. A small dose of LSD can get you to believe you can fly, or that the world will end in 4 hours. Remove part of your Ventromedial PreFrontal Cortex, and suddenly you are so utilitarian even Joshua Greene would call you a psycho.
It requires very little material change to substantially modify a human being's behavior. Same holds for other animals with embedded brains, crafted by evolution and made of squishy matter modulated by glands and molecular gates.
A Problem for Paul-Boxing and CEV?
One assumption underlying Paul-Boxing and CEV is that:
It is easier to specify and simulate a human-like mind then to impart values to an AGI by means of teaching it values directly via code or human language.
Usually we assume that because, as we know, value is fragile. But so are embedded minds. Very little tampering is required to profoundly transform people's moral intuitions. A large fraction of the inmate population in the US has frontal lobe or amygdala malfunctions.
Finding out the simplest description of a human brain that when simulated continues to act as that human brain would act in the real world may turn out to be as fragile, or even more fragile, than concept learning for AGI's.