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Comment by hgomersall | Hacker News Reader

There's an interesting thought experiment that goes the other way. What if we replace a single neuron in a conscious person's brain by a properly connected real-time neuron simulator? Would that affect the person's consciousness? What about two neurons? Etc etc. At what point, if ever, would a progressively more simulated brain no longer be the original consciousness?

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This may be a little deceptive depending on how you define "a properly connected real-time neuron simulator". Can it form new connections? Can it grow? Does it metabolize? Can it die? Etc...

These are all good questions and probably allow our realised thought experiment to gain more insight into what aspects are necessary for consciousness and what are just biological baggage.

I suspect the line is very blurry indeed.

But does it really matter? If we can just replace, one-by-one all neurons in brain with artificial ones and that would not affect consciousness of the user, then we've just proved it's possible to have a thinking machine

What if you replace all the neurons and the person is suddenly stuck with no short-term memory and aphasia? Clearly your replacement neurons are defective. At which point are they not? Is that point distinguishable from normal neurons?

What is this counterfactual? We're talking about replacing the neurons one by one, slowly. When would the loss of memory happen?

Is a person with no short-term memory and aphasia still conscious?

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