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The merger of Silicon and Carbon

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Imagine that you can get real-time readings of the firings of every group of about 100 neurons on your neocortex. This data is fed real-time to a computer. It would be interesting to imagine if the computer (I like to call her Ainhoa) could be programmed to learn as the brain learns, but let's suppose that engineers pre-coded some algorithms into it, so that it will help you better develop and function everyday. Maybe your neurons could learn to program the computer the same way as your limbic system learns to control and use your cortex as you develop. Here are some of the highly theoretical guesses as to what this computer extension would mean: Exporting arithmetics problems. You see the multiplication '9411×10037' written on a piece of paper or on a screen. Before you even grasp that those are numbers, the computer has already analyzed the visual data from your cortex and it understood that it was an arithmetics problem and has an answer ready for you. Si

The origin of life

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We are creating a new universe for a new type of life to thrive in. This new universe is already created and it is the Internet. It will only become alive if it fills certain criteria.

Machine at birth?

In light of my last article entitled 'The Great Somatic Divide: Silicon vs. Carbon' , I started to think of ways in which those feelings and emotions connected to our bodies could be made available to Ainhoa (AI). Let's explore how to bridge the somatic divide: how to give AI body, so that it will be more human? My first thought was that maybe a digestive system could be added. One taken out of a pig, for exemple, and held alive inside Ainhoa. That way, she could actually digest food and get nutrients out of it. But how would those nutrients interact with her cognitive abilities? She would need some kind of brain that would be fed those nutrients. So an entire circulatory system would be needed, with a brain, liver and kidneys and a lung, so eventually you might as well add an entire body. But what body? Would a rat be good enough? Or should you use a monkey? Or should Ainhoa have a human body? Let's explore the possibilities. Ainhoa has a rat body hosted ins

Is this some kind of a religion?

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There are several parallels between religious beliefs and the Mind Uploading Movement. Is Mind Uploading just a religion for nerds? I took some lines out of an interview with Naval Ravikant, who gives a beautiful rebuttal of the Mind Uploading Movement. " I t’s very hard to tell apart from a biblical kind of story. I find the people who are pushing it the most are what I would call sort of armchair technologists. They might understand a little bit of science, but these are not the PhDs and physicists who are pushing this. It’s not like the Fields Medal winning mathematicians who is pushing this. I was trained in a little bit of science and I consider myself an amateur scientist. I know just enough to know how little we know." Ladies and Gentlemen, yours truly is a perfect example of an armchair technologist. Am I going to give up the 'Mind Uploading Religion' as I am gaining more understanding of it? "Physics still can’t solve the three-

The solution to everything

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Part I: The Solution A highly theoretical, yet pefectly reasonable way to solve the problem of uploading one's mind in a way that it maximizes resemblance, allowing full connection between host and clone is: Create a superhuman AGI. By definition it will be orders of magnitude more intelligent than us. Let it figure out the solution to the problem of mind uploading. Let the magician do the magic. As I have been exploring the possibilities of mind uploading in the past weeks, I found more and more fundamental hurdles: Silicon vs Carbon To say that we just have to invent Superhuman Artificial General Intelligence (SAGI) to solve this problem is a pretty low intelletual achievement. By definition, SAGI will solve every problem by that token. So I will spend the second half of this essay exploring what it takes to create SAGI: Part II: How to make SAGI Route 1. Build a system that is a good enough at changing its own code to maximize performance in specific tas

The Great Somatic Divide: Silicon vs. Carbon

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Feelings we won't be able to share with an Artificial Intelligence machine. Do you prefer an authentic or human-like AI? The name I give to AI in this article is Ainhoa (basque for virgin). Although Ainhoa could feel many of the stimuli that we, humans, feel through sensors, there are many feelings and emotions arising from the biological nature of our body that Ainhoa will never be able to experience first hand. The following could be programmed into Ainhoa, but people interacting with Ainhoa would spot the weirdness: Sexual Love Ainhoa does not reproduce sexually and has no real gender. Ainhoa could express sexual preference or sexual urge, but it would feel weird, since she has neither sex hormones nor genitals. In the movie 'Her', the main character freaks out when he hears "Ainhoa" breathe heavily, saying: "Why do you do that?! You don't even need oxygen!" Connected feelings such as attachment and jealousy are also tr

Are you wasting your time on thinking about mind uploading? (video post)

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Depends. Are you an optimist? I expose an objective evaluation of the 'usefulness of spending time thinking about mind uploading'. Spoiler alert! YES, it is worth spending time on this. So follow me on my journey of spending a lot of time on this and maybe we will meet in silicon heaven!