Could you copy the brain to a computer?

[Everten P.]

Guys remember he said make a computer with ~ the same power of a brain. Well you can make it way better if you used those one atom transistors then yes if you had quadrillions of dollars in capital, and you would prefer a robot controlling you mind to make you wash dishes. But would it be practical? Yes again if you would spend money and time to make a man who was the human equivalent of Google and you wanted him to have an IQ of over 9000. But with current technology it's kind of rhetorical. NO. ( if you didn't already guess)

[karolus10]

I think that there is one question that need to be answered: what You want to achieve by creating copy of your mind ? At best we are creating Artificial intelligence in our very own image with no direct benefits to ourselves, i.e. this way, we are going to die regardless we had alive copy or not.

[nhnifong]

I want to achive the preservation of human intellect. so much is lost in the transmission of culture and knowledge from adult to child. We have yet to see what depth of intelligence and wisdom an immortal human mind is capable of.

[Accelerando]

I want to achive the preservation of human intellect. so much is lost in the transmission of culture and knowledge from adult to child. We have yet to see what depth of intelligence and wisdom an immortal human mind is capable of.

Prepare for the wave of people whining about how they'll lose all their family and friends etc etc and how they're afraid of growing bored with life.

[Faark]

I want to achive the preservation of human intellect. so much is lost in the transmission of culture and knowledge from adult to child. We have yet to see what depth of intelligence and wisdom an immortal human mind is capable of.

You are assuming that a brain will work forever. Pretty much all parts of us are "designed" by evolution for a specific lifetime, so you might have to heavily modify the simulated brain's "firmware"to prevent it from behaving like a degrading crazy old guy anyway.

[Seret]

I think that there is one question that need to be answered: what You want to achieve by creating copy of your mind ?

It's one part of a two-part puzzle. Eventually you'd want to be able to move that mind into a new body of some kind. Once you've done that then you've invented cheap, fast interstellar travel. That seems quite useful to me.

Even before that point you've still got the utility of a very human AI, as well as an amazing research tool for learning about the brain, psychology, etc.

[K^2]

Well this is a good point, but doesn't change the fact a simulation on a computer would be very poor compared to the real thing. Otherwise any level of simulation quality could be considered valid.

Probably, but how close do you need to get, anyhow? Are you not you while experiencing a strong emotion, like anger or excitement? How about when you have a flu? Or if you had a bit to drink?

The brain is clearly capable of operating under quite a range of not quite perfect parameters. And no simulation will ever get it perfectly, but we just don't have to have it perfect. We can adjust the parameters we have control over until the person simulated feels "normal". Even if that "normal" isn't identical to real neutral mood behavior, we are still simulating that person's brain. Might be that person's brain when it's operating slightly off peak, but if it's not noticeable to the person being simulated, what else can we ask for?

[lajoswinkler]

Probably, but how close do you need to get, anyhow? Are you not you while experiencing a strong emotion, like anger or excitement? How about when you have a flu? Or if you had a bit to drink?

The brain is clearly capable of operating under quite a range of not quite perfect parameters. And no simulation will ever get it perfectly, but we just don't have to have it perfect. We can adjust the parameters we have control over until the person simulated feels "normal". Even if that "normal" isn't identical to real neutral mood behavior, we are still simulating that person's brain. Might be that person's brain when it's operating slightly off peak, but if it's not noticeable to the person being simulated, what else can we ask for?

True, but the definition of "feeling normal" turns us back to philosophical questions.