Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

newscientist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 186 posts

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#171

Post by Lapsa »

throw310822 wrote: post #124
gambiting wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> We're actually on a trajectory for human brains becoming the most expensive option for basically any job. Unless RTX9000 with 16PB of ram needed to run basic Gemini2077 model costs more than a house, but a brain jar with electrodes is cheaper than that. Then the economic incentives will shift the other way.

No I don't think so. We can already create LLMs that are highly efficient and infinitely more knowledgeable than any single human being, completely tuned to the task, without ego or distractions, and they are cheap enough that you can run tens of them in parallel for a few hundred dollars per month. They are also way faster than any human being. And we're three/ four years in this. Imagine 50 years from now.

"infinitely more knowledgeable" AI knows shit, stop shilling your crap

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#172

Post by allajfjwbwkwja »

coppsilgold wrote: post #91

A thought experiment: One by one your neurons are replaced by their digital counterpart as a nano-scale computer in-place, with equivalent functionality. After which neuron number are you no longer you? You remain conscious throughout the process, the process may last however long with pauses for sleep. After the replacement is complete, one by one these neurons are switched off with their functionality offloaded to…

> one by one these neurons are switched off with their functionality offloaded to their clone instantiated in a computer

What if we use two computers? The computers will produce identical output in response to the inputs during the transition; both copies have continuity. Where are you, at the end?

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#173

Post by djhn »

wolvoleo wrote: post #164
birdsongs wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I think this is anywhere close in actuality, but It's reminding me of MMAcevedo. ( https://qntm.org/mmacevedo ) What server will I wake up on? Who is running the infrastructure? What will be asked of me to be allowed to continue to exist on that server? Given our current societal trends, I can't imagine I would enjoy any existence where a copy of me is spun back up. And of course, my original thread of consc…

> What will be asked of me to be allowed to continue to exist on that server? I can't imagine anything of value that you could offer at that point, when artificial intelligence has become so powerful. Any knowledge you have would have been outdated and any intellectual ability would have been surpassed already.

Human brains might work as lower power consumption, higher efficiency cores for less demanding work.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#175

Post by himata4113 »

allajfjwbwkwja wrote: post #145
himata4113 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really think you're correct on that one. To begin with, what makes us whole is mostly memories and our subconcious. What makes it obvious are illnesses like dementia and general decay of neural activity as we get older. If we implant the same memories into something or someone that person/entity would become you, like waking up from a long nap. You might not feel the same, think the same, or act the same, but…

It's a copy with your memories, not you. Is one of them still you, if we make three copies?

they're also just you, but with a different derivative.

This is roughly inline with a many-worlds theorem where tiny variations can create many versions of you, this would be that but within the same universe.

Well, proving it would require you to end your life because the basis for the theorem is that there will always be a version of you that will not die.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#176

Post by rozap »

beeflet wrote: post #98
KronisLV wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Each time the brain fails a captcha, the brain receives an electric impulse which simulates the most excruciating pain that the brain can respresent, but the brain cannot scream or run away. What percentage of your life being enjoyable vs horrible suffering makes it worth living? Maybe you're 80 years old at the time of storing your brain. Suppose after being revived that regime with capitalist incentives holds for…

What percentage of your life being enjoyable vs horrible suffering makes it worth living? I don't know but 99% of my life being used to solve captchas makes it not worth living >Suppose after being revived that regime with capitalist incentives Having to provide for other people is literally the same as being trapped in a "I have no mouth and I must scream"-esque torture chamber. Given the historical track record of…

I read your quote "Having to provide for other people is literally the same as being trapped in a "I have no mouth and I must scream"" and my brain immediately went to the millions of Americans working dead end jobs just to put food on the table for their family. It need not be communism for this to be a reality.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#177

Post by allajfjwbwkwja »

himata4113 wrote: post #175
allajfjwbwkwja wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a copy with your memories, not you. Is one of them still you, if we make three copies?

they're also just you, but with a different derivative. This is roughly inline with a many-worlds theorem where tiny variations can create many versions of you, this would be that but within the same universe. Well, proving it would require you to end your life because the basis for the theorem is that there will always be a version of you that will not die.

They're not you insofar as what's important to yourself in your attempt to live forever. Other people might consider them you.

When I'm dying, I won't care at all about versions of me in parallel universes living on, because they're not me.

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#179

Post by scotty79 »

la64710 wrote: post #156
scotty79 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does the thread of you your consciousness end when you go to sleep? Does the thread of someone elses consciousness ends when they experience grand mal seizure and thrir electrical brain activity goes wrong all at once and then resets? How's "waking up" in the virtual different from waking up from grand mal seizure? (assuming that all relevant biochemical data of neurons was read correcly and their behavior is simulat…

No because you know it was you who was in deep sleep And just woke up

What does "you" even mean?

Re: A pig's brain has been frozen with its cellular activity locked in place

#180

Post by nextaccountic »

generic92034 wrote: post #142
birdsongs wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that I think this is anywhere close in actuality, but It's reminding me of MMAcevedo. ( https://qntm.org/mmacevedo ) What server will I wake up on? Who is running the infrastructure? What will be asked of me to be allowed to continue to exist on that server? Given our current societal trends, I can't imagine I would enjoy any existence where a copy of me is spun back up. And of course, my original thread of consc…

> And of course, my original thread of consciousness will still be ended, so this is some alternate copy of me. Mine ends several times every night. I am probably generic92034#60000 and counting.

Apropos https://existentialcomics.com/comic/1
Post reply on HN