"Mind-blowing" is the word indeed.
As I read through this article, my first thought was, what if they do create a full, human-like brain. Would it be immoral to then shut it down?
As I read through this article, my first thought was, what if they do create a full, human-like brain. Would it be immoral to then shut it down?
So, if everything freezes and restarts at a later time, the brain would not perceive any missing time.
This will be a huge can of worms one day.
Also, the estimates of the total complexity of the brain may have all been greatly underestimated. We now have strong evidence from evolutionary Proteomics that each synapse has considerable complexity and is itself involved in computation. This makes perfect sense: the synapse must have evolved from the molecular sensing and navigation mechanisms of single celled Eukaryotes, and these are clearly capable of some computation.
(See the Brain Science Podcast episode 51)