News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain emulation by 2024. Parent comment

Re:Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain... by eschulte on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @04:46PM (#2561734)
Thomas Metzinger addresses this exact question in his book _The Ego Tunnel_ ([1] a great non-technical overview of his work in Philosophy-o-Mind/Neuroscience), and he comes down strongly on the side that any artificial generation of "consciousness" would be reckless and could likely increasing the amount of suffering in the world.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Ego-Tunnel-Science-Mind-Myth/dp/046504...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain... by dodo53 on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @04:58PM (#2561795)
That sounds really interesting, thanks for link.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Human Brain Project: $1.61 billion to achieve human brain... by eschulte on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @05:14PM (#2561853)
Happy to share. Metzinger takes a hard line on strong materialism and against the existence of the self. For a more general overview of current strains of scientific thoughts on consciousness I'd recommend _Conversations on Consciousness_ [1] which interviews leading researchers who are representative of the varied approaches to the field.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Consciousness-Minds-Thin...

[ Parent | on HN ]