Saturday, April 01, 2023

The idea of copying the consciousness of oneself appears to be doubtful, if not outright ridiculous.




There are people who almost casually endorse mind-uploading or whole brain emulation as methods for copying self-consciousness, which is a real puzzler for this author. 


For me, the idea of copying the consciousness of oneself appears to be doubtful, if not outright ridiculous.


In the latest episode of my Street Brain Radio series I explored the reasons why I am a skeptic in this matter while walking on the streets of Tokyo.


In a nutshell, self-consciousness would depend on metacognition, and that would not be possible to copy. In addition, when information is in the conscious domain (as opposed to the unconscious domain) metacognitive processes would again be essential so that it is not straightforward to copy them.


Ken Mogi's Street Brain Radio is a poor man's answer to Lex Fridman's podcast, which is of course brilliant. I like the way of exploring fundamental questions at length, without paying too much attention to the potential audience.


Related video.


The impossibility of copying self-consciousness and metacognitive information.







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