Lauren Weinstein on Nostr: My favorite thought experiment about consciousness is the old neuron replacement ...

My favorite thought experiment about consciousness is the old neuron replacement game. One by one, you replace neurons in the brain with exact artificial duplicates that behave and interact with other neurons (or replaced neurons) in EXACTLY the same manner as the originals. Bit by bit more and more of the brain is replaced, until it is entirely made up of replaced artificial neurons. To the outer world, the brain behaves exactly as it did before. But what of the consciousness? If there ever was a consciousness. Is the original introspective entity gone? Were they a physical manifestation in the first place, a set of processes running on the hardware of the neurons? Both? Neither?

Observant readers will note that this is pretty much the same question as comes up with teleportation, when you create an exact copy of the original and then destroy the original.

Say goodnight, Spock.