Uploading consciousness might not look like ‘Lucy’. Or is it?
The future of AI is the understanding of human emotions at the pinnacle and mimicking the circumstances that might lead to similar reactions. Well, ‘Lucy’ was able to access 100% of her brain powers but we are normal human beings away from the circumstances of induced hyper-memory from drugs!! How can we upload minds then? There can be a lot of questions regarding the same. ‘Minds’ is a word that can be expanded in every possible domain of study and experimentation and hence they refer to the definition of ‘mind’ quite different from each other.
Some sources say that Cyborgs are the future of uploading the ‘consciousness’. Now, since I have mentioned cyborgs, how can we forget him.
He is Neil Harbisson, the world’s first enlisted cyborg. He is the first person to have implanted an antenna in his skull that is light-sensitive. Not only that, this antenna converts the audio and video input into audio form signals which makes him actually listen to the colors. So, what are you thinking? Technology is deep within us, right?
Well, let me talk about a principle…
Simulation Hypothesis
The simulation hypothesis or simulation theory is the proposal that all of reality, including the Earth and the rest of the universe, could in fact be an artificial simulation, such as a computer simulation. Nick Bostrom is the man who would be credited for the modern form of thinking in this regard. But, this concept was something that dwelt for centuries…
[You would understand better if you have played the videogame ‘The Sims’ by Electronic Arts]
Now, many economists and proficient scientists have discarded the theory. But wait, why I am telling you this?
Well, IMAGINE…
I have Color Blindness, say I can’t see the ‘Blue’ color. You can see it! The world is different and brighter for you. You can easily distinguish between the colors and enjoy the mojito! But, if we are looking at the same thing and just because of some functional error (or deficiency) in my brain, I am seeing something very different. Perception is only a matter of the brain and the brain is highly subjective. So if we can simulate the world, then we would be able to see the same thing as Neil tried to do. If the simulation is the truth, then shouldn’t we be perceiving the same thing? Or is it running differently for different people? Like a whole Customised version.
Studies might reveal that the latter is true because all people are different and how they think would vastly differ from the things they perceive. That’s why there’s a difference between Sherlock and me!
In the context of Lucy
For those who don’t know, Lucy is a movie, starring Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, along with others. The movie depicts a hypothetical way by which the protagonist was able to access 100% of her brain and was able to upload herself, using hardware and software powers, to the internet.
Uploading the consciousness might not look like Lucy, at all. Considering the current scenario, technology could reach that far where people can now store their memory and decide what to do next.
Consider Machine Learning, a hot topic that has been running for the past 40–50 years. ML/AI have interfaced with the requirements of humans to accurately performs decisions and make certain moves based on the previous test case scenarios. Would you call that consciousness?
NO. Obviously. This is intelligence and consciousness is far beyond the scope of intelligence. Consciousness and intelligence are co-related but we can’t say that one would eventually lead to another. Some specialized humanoids, like Sophie, are able to interact with the environment and work on the basis of the social interactions she has been taught, or grasped over the years of experience. Her intelligence is uploaded to her system and using a bunch of algorithms she is able to perform her own functions. Well, does that mean that humans are also algorithms?? Well, we would discuss this in a later blog.
Uploading Consciousness
As of now, it is not possible to upload the consciousness of human brains. ‘Neuralink’ along with Elon Musk is trying to find a method by which we would be able to access our consciousness whenever we want. This can be possible and yet quite a controversial topic, if we are considering it to store.
There can be a systematic process for the uploading of Consciousness. Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) tried to categorize human consciousness into three broad domains:
- Conscious
- Pre-conscious
- Unconscious
However, later on, there has been a lot of variations in the proposed theories and have been thought to have a different perspective than the state ones. Some of them include developmental, social, and neuropsychological; each contributes a different understanding of what consciousness might be.
Now, the catch is this, all of these domains vary in different domains of studies and hence can have different sets of classifications. But one thing we can understand is that our consciousness is our interaction with the environment at all defined forms. So, such philosophical terms wouldn’t stand in the picture of computer languages (0’s and 1's). So what to do now??
A possible Method
We need statistical data to formulate the environment. So, to tackle the problem of consciousness, we need to make statistical data that commensurate to the need of our model. We would be requiring a huge force of data engineers, scientists, and engineers. Why???
Huge sets of examples are required for the proper functioning of any model. Startup founder Alexandr Wang himself confirmed the fact. His startup mainly comprises the same, where he labels all the data around him for other companies and clients to use for the generation of a perfect model. And, by the way, when I say ‘huge’, I literally mean HUGE!
I think probably tons of hard drives and ever-expanding memory would be required. Because consciousness is not direct. It is interlinked with so many different prospects. You can’t judge one aspect by looking at some data points and hence require a huge labor force to enlist the data and carefully classify them. Collectively, the consciously CAN be uploaded to the cloud systems for direct access, if we have the conditions met.
Computationally, this would be highly computation intensive. Because there would be an immense number of algorithms running over an infinite number of loops. The greater the data, the better would be the results but the more would it be computationally intensive. Making it some of the difficult tasks to perceive and accomplish.
But, We CAN upload our consciousness. If we can somehow design the Quantum computer to solve such simulations then it would certainly be possible. The algorithm generated would be no more just a piece of software but a functional human prototype to its ultimate natural form!