[ExI] Digital Consciousness .

[Anders Sandberg]

On 25/04/2013 13:18, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> Upload a real skeptic, and he's going to pull a full-blow pathology 
> like Capgras or Cotard on you. Of course acute agitation management is 
> much easier in a simulation.

In my ethics of brain emulation talk I actually use an emulated version 
of Searle as an example. If a sceptic is uploaded and changes his mind 
about the possibility of consciousness in uploads, then we have some 
evidence there is consciousness there. Of course, it could be a p-zombie 
merely implementing the appearance of somebody honestly introspecting 
and then changing their mind about deeply held beliefs, but I think most 
people would be convinced.

Whether real sceptics would go nuts from the experience remains to be 
seen. My bet is that you only get Cotard if you have messed up the 
simulation, not because of the ontological shock.


-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University