X-Message-Number: 32877
From: Daniel Crevier <>
References: <>
Subject: thought experiment on progressive uploading
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:51:14 -0400

Greetings.

Given the recent rush of postings about uploading, now may be the time to 
submit some considerations I've entertained for a while about the thought 
experiment  where a person 's brain is gradually replaced by artificial 
components. Since we,  uploaders and opponents, are all materialists here, 
we are agreed that the procedure should not bring about any observable 
change in the behavior of the patient, since his or her "input-output 
function" remains unchanged.  During and after the procedure, the person 
should keep on reacting to the environment and report on his or her internal 
states in the same way. In particular, the patient should keep on insisting 
that he or she is still conscious.

Uploaders claim that this shows that the person effectively remains 
conscious throughout, and is thus  "the same" in the uploaded state as 
before. Anti-uploaders claim that since non-biological material cannot be 
conscious, the person in fact gradually loses consciousnous and becomes, in 
philosophical parlance, a zombie: a being with all the outwards appearances 
of consciousness, but effectively dead inside.

But for this last interpretation to be true we have, imho, to accept that 
some pretty weird things happen during the transformation. To be precise, 
let us assume that the person has had the V5 section in the back of the 
brain converted, and nothing else. To the rest of the brain (ROB), the input 
from the digitized V5 "feels" exactly the same as before, and therefore 
ROB's behavior should be unaffected. It so happens that V5 processes visual 
input from the optic nerve, and makes this information explicitly available 
to the rest of the brain.  By the anti-uploading assumption, since the 
digitized version of V5 lacks whatever magic is required to generate 
consciousness, then the person should not be conscious of what he or she 
sees. Hower, as per our assumptions, the person should report that he or she 
is still conscious of visual input.

But wait a minute! Remember, ROB is still intact. In particular, the 
monitoring and command areas in the neocortex, the centers that control what 
the patient says, and the auditory centers that interpret what the patient 
hears, are still biological. So how can the patient's mouth be activated to 
say something that is to him or her patently untrue (that he or she is still 
conscious of visual input), hear his or her mouth spout this nonsense, and 
not react? If you believe in the zombie interpretation, what's going on 
here?

(And in case you're wondering, it's not anything like blindsight: patients 
with a damaged V5 are perfectly aware of their partial blindness, even if 
other areas of the brain keep on processing part of the visual infrmation).

Daniel Crevier 

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