X-Message-Number: 26376
From: "Basie" <>
Subject: The Ethics of Creating Consciousness
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 23:49:24 -0400

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The Ethics of Creating Consciousness
  Next month, IBM is set to activate the most ambitious simulation of a 
human brain yet conceived. It's a model they say is accurate down to the 
molecule. No one claims the "Blue Brain" project will be self-aware. But 
this project, and others like it, use electrical patterns in a silicon brain 
to simulate the electrical patterns in the human brain -- patterns which are 
intimately linked to thought. But if computer programs start generating 
these patterns -- these electrical "thoughts" -- then what separates us from 
them? Traditionally human beings have reserved words like "reasoning," 
"self-awareness," and "soul" as their exclusive property. But with the 
stirring of something akin to electronic consciousness -- some argue that 
human beings need to give up the ghost, and embrace the machine in all of 
us.

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http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2005/06/20050613_b_main.asp

Basie

http://www.agingtheory.com/pages/1/index.htm

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