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timtyler comments on 6502 simulated - mind uploading for microprocessors - Less Wrong Discussion

36 Post author: humpolec 08 January 2011 06:03PM

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Comment author: timtyler 09 January 2011 10:45:43AM 3 points [-]

Note how late it happened, and how useless the results are, though. Practically nobody uses IT systems that are scanned and emulated versions of the previous generation of technology.

Comment author: EdS 10 January 2011 04:50:56PM 0 points [-]

Yes, late, and yes, slow. But it's what you have to do when you don't understand the thing you wish to duplicate. Making a brain is one thing, making a specific brain is another.

Comment author: timtyler 10 January 2011 08:49:42PM *  0 points [-]

Making a brain is what we want to do to solve our resource problems, and help us to focus on the things we care about.

We didn't understand birds - but we didn't duplicate them either. I would draw an analogy between duplicating a specific brain and duplicating specific bird. We learned how to fly a while back - but we still don't know where to begin on the project of making a specific bird.

Comment author: EdS 16 January 2011 07:02:50PM 0 points [-]

Hmm, learning to fly without replicating a specific bird is analogous to the problem of general AI. This discussion thread started with a claimed analogy between chip simulation and mind uploading, which is more the problem of replicating a specific bird. If I claimed to be able to upload your mind, then proceeded to scan or mince your brain, and then showed your relatives a general AI, they would be unimpressed.

Comment author: timtyler 16 January 2011 07:34:51PM *  0 points [-]

Sure. On the other hand if you show manufacturers, engineers or governments a general AI then some major changes happen - and those are the folk who are most likely to cough up for the required R&D.

Possibly those changes might ultimately include the human brain being scanned and emulated - but chronological order seems as though it may be significant here.