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Substrate-independent minds

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Cognitive Function Augmentation
Another branch of neural engineering research rehabilitates cognitive function by using neural engineering to bridge damaged brain tissue; an example of this is memory augmentation.2 Several neurosecurity concerns may arise as these technologies transition from research studies to real deployments in patients with Alzheimer and other diseases. A hacker should not be able to alter the settings of the device wirelessly to stimulate the brain in an unsafe manner or to interfere with the normal formation of memories (integrity); for example, a hacker should not be able to cause disproportionately intense memories or cause unimportant things to become long-term memories. As noted above, the plasticity of the brain can cause spurious electrical signals to make long-term alterations to the brain's normal function.
Because these technologies will be intimately connected to a patient's cognitive functions, we must ensure that future technological advances do not unintentionally jeopardize the privacy of an individual's mind (confidentiality). For example, if it is possible to determine whether a patient is familiar with something by wirelessly eavesdropping on the implant's signals, then neurosecurity dictates that the implant should be designed to conceal this information; otherwise, the patient could be forced to reveal potentially private information. Last, we must ensure that a hacker cannot simply disable the device, thereby causing unexpected gaps in a patient's memory (availability).
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'The 2045 team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality,' says Itskov's official site.
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Russian research project offers 'immortality' to billionaires - by transplanting their brains into robot bodies | Mail Online
 
mike said:
Russian research project offers 'immortality' to billionaires - by transplanting their brains into robot bodies | Mail Online
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Wow. This will be interesting to see how much this is real science or scam in the future. Great, we are going to have Russian mobster billionaires become immortal whatzits. I wonder if their love and compassion for mankind will be enhanced by their transfer and what plans they might hatch to accumulate more wealth and control given the time they expect to have on their hands to fill?
 
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
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Neo-Humanity 2045: A Global Strategy for the Evolution of Humanity in the Third Millennium / 2045 Initiative

Interesting combo, evolutionary transition to new form of life and space travel..............

If and its still an IF, but IF we do this it opens up some very interesting avenues of thought regarding the nature of those allegedly visiting us.

A post biological species that has left death behind is clearly better adapted to space travel than a biological one with limited life spans.
 
trainedobserver said:
I wonder if their love and compassion for mankind will be enhanced by their transfer ?
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In all honesty i dont think it will be enhanced, I think post biologicals will look on biologicals as unevolved second class sentience.

But i come from a society that sees basic universal health care as an expected function of said society.
I would hope that access to this technology would be available to any who want it for the same reasons.
Milage will vary, but i think the society that values and preserves the unique life experience of its members will be the better for it.
Why lose that knowledge and experience, its akin to burning down librarys
 
Some excellent observations on the possibilities

Others point out that the same could have been said about heavier-than-air flight.



The history of that technology, too, is littered with naysayers (some of whom refused to believe reports of the Wright brothers' success, apparently). For human-level intelligence, as for heavier-than-air flight, naysayers need to confront the fact nature has managed the trick: think brains and birds, respectively.

A good naysaying argument needs a reason for thinking that human technology can never reach the bar in terms of AI.

Pessimism is much easier. For one thing, we know nature managed to put human-level intelligence in skull-sized boxes, and that some of those skull-sized boxes are making progress in figuring out how nature does it. This makes it hard to maintain that the bar is permanently out of reach of artificial intelligence – on the contrary, we seem to be improving our understanding of what it would take to get there.
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By now you see where this is going, according to this pessimistic view.

The concern is that by creating computers that are as intelligent as humans (at least domains that matter to technological progress), we risk yielding control over the planet to intelligences that are simply indifferent to us, and to things that we consider valuable – things such as life and a sustainable environment.

If that sounds far-fetched, the pessimists say, just ask gorillas how it feels to compete for resources with the most intelligent species – the reason they are going extinct is not (on the whole) because humans are actively hostile towards them, but because we control the environment in ways that are detrimental to their continuing survival.
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Artificial intelligence – can we keep it in the box?
 
Weird - reading this thread I was reminded of Steve (Tyder001) who created a sock puppet account in the name of Dannytorrance. For the first time though I noticed that 'Dannytorrance' had referred to himself (Tyder001) which is pretty weird! It's below:

and tyder talks alot and seems to be all touchy feely. (!)
 
goggsmackay said:
Weird - reading this thread I was reminded of Steve (Tyder001) who created a sock puppet account in the name of Dannytorrance. For the first time though I noticed that 'Dannytorrance' had referred to himself (Tyder001) which is pretty weird! It's below:

and tyder talks alot and seems to be all touchy feely. (!)
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i just finished an interesting story in the new yorker magazine about forensic lingustics which is pretty much the methodology angelo used...either knowingly or unknowlingly... to finger tyder001
 
spookymulder said:
i just finished an interesting story in the new yorker magazine about forensic lingustics which is pretty much the methodology angelo used...either knowingly or unknowlingly... to finger tyder001
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Angelo is a Mod and all posts leave an IP tag ... :D
Very easy to cross reference and work out who is who and where they are broadcasting from...

In fact that should be a warning to a certain poster of late who is rolling IP's (not you spooky)...
 
After more than four years of research, DARPA has created a system that successfully combines soldiers, EEG brainwave scanners, 120-megapixel cameras, and multiple computers running cognitive visual processing algorithms into a cybernetic hivemind. Called the Cognitive Technology Threat Warning System (CT2WS), it will be used in a combat setting to significantly improve the US Army’s threat detection capabilities.
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DARPA combines human brains and 120-megapixel cameras to create the ultimate military threat detection system | ExtremeTech
 
A blurb on NPR today was about recent work on electronic circuitry designed to harmlessly dissolve over time after being implanted in the body. Seems the line between paranoid psychosis and legit concern keeps getting thinner.
 
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