Transfer of consciousness to another carrier by the method of "cyber substitution"

Periodically in the comments to the posts, one way or another, discussions of one of the directions of the emergence and development of artificial intelligence emerge - copying already created by nature but on a different basis.

One of the first ethical problems that researchers will face in this direction will be the problem of determining self-awareness and the problem of defining a process — copying it or transfer. The purpose of this post is to postpone the discussion of this problem in the comments, since it is offtopic in most places.

If we admit the existence of a technology that can instantly copy everything that defines us as a person onto another carrier, which in itself is still a problem, there is a difficulty with what to do with the remaining original. Probably it will be somewhat easier if this issue is resolved by the technology of reading / copying itself, for example, if the body and consciousness of the original will be killed in one way or another, or even destroyed, and even used to create a copy (for example, energy). but in any case, it seems to me, the very realization that the original body will cease to exist should scare off potential users of this process.
')
Arguments for the fact that there is no difference for the consciousness of a copy or not, is the statement that throughout the life of the matter of our body and so repeatedly and completely replaced, not to mention the fact that our consciousness is most likely not continuous, we constantly lose it or artificially (with the help of chemical preparations or physical impact) and even during sleep. Those. there will be no difference that at a certain point in time we fall asleep by a man in a biological envelope and wake up in another.
Personally, I do not agree with this statement, at least it does not reassure, but this can be used to choose the direction of development of the methods of this copying.

I propose to carry out the process of copying / transferring not instantly, but gradually, thus imitating the natural process of replacing matter in man.

Instead of trying to understand what consciousness is, how memory functions and how it can be copied, you can try to figure out how the elementary particles of the basis on which it all is based — our nervous system, our brain and its neurons. In general, I believe that trying to copy the memory and methods of our thinking is just as stupid as trying to make a copy of a web resource, observing only its behavior.

In general, scientists are engaged in attempts to emulate neurons now:

IBM has developed a "neurosynaptic" computer processor TrueNorth , which by its architecture emulates the structure of the human brain. More precisely, a small area of ​​the brain containing 1 million neurons and 256 million synapses.

Imagine a machine (which can be significantly larger than the body being copied), gradually, neuron after neuron replacing our brain cells with its parts, keeping and emulating the state of each cell in your computer (or even specialized equipment, an important feature of which will be copying and possibly changing the speed of data processing). Let nanorobots / nanoparticles driven outside be introduced into the body, and each, reaching a working neuron, first analyzes its state, working with it synchronously, and, at some point in time, destroys it, continuing to work further. This process can last long enough for the consciousness to not feel the transition . Naturally, along with the replacement of the nervous system, it is necessary to replace other organs, I suppose with the development of technology this is the first thing we can do, first the cybernization of the organs of the body and only after that the nervous system.

I believe that during the first experiments with this method of transfer, it will be possible to think out options for retreat, when nanorobots instead of destroying nerve cells will restore them and be removed from the body. Those. if during the course of the experiment it turns out that the consciousness or the intellect of the test subject has changed in the wrong direction, or some other problems have arisen, you can try to roll back. I do not think that this can be used to transfer the mind to a biological carrier from digital, because this operation is not instantaneous, and it needs an already working body and nervous system, but it is likely that as the technology of emulation of nerve cells develops, it will be possible to create a biological being, which instead of biological nerve cells will be electronic. Perhaps for someone it will be an ethically acceptable compromise.

Ultimately, when the nanorobots completely replace the human nervous system, we can assume that the transfer took place. Of course, the computer will need to additionally emulate not only the nervous system itself, but also the rest of the body with all its senses, as well as the environment and its impact on them.

And now the saddest thing about this method. If using this technology we get a working copy of a person, we will not get closer to understanding the work of the brain and its development. Yes, a machine will be created that will think like a person, but this person will be able to control robotics at one point in time if the interfaces between them and his mind are emulated according to the same principle as we are now managing technology. Those. the consciousness will have the same two eyes and it will turn out to 'grow up' the third one, also it will have two arms, two legs. The resulting organism will think with the same restrictions as the original man, he will be able to hold in his mind the same number of events at one point in time, he will have the same memory problems, and in general this person is quite capable of going crazy for the same reasons that the original ... in general it will be a copy, with almost all the shortcomings of organic.

Yes, thanks to full cybernation, we will be able to completely control such things as hormones (or rather, we will have to emulate them) and in general the “chemical composition” of the body. I suppose that this body will not be sleeping, or at least changes of biorhythms are possible. And of course, death from problems with the body itself does not threaten this person. It is quite possible that the mind living for a very long time may have some unknown problems, as well as a banal desire for further existence (for skeptics I can immediately remind you that there are quite tangible incentives for a material person to exist, but for the mind placed in the world completely controlled by him, these stimuli can be simplified and degenerate to the banal button "pleasure", at least the results of experiments on mice are disappointing).

As bonuses for the received mind, a significant acceleration of the whole body's work is possible, if the replacement technology allows it (and I think it will be possible, because technologies are obtained too easily parallelizable). It is also possible, most importantly, to instantly copy the state of the whole mind (in digital form it is noticeably simpler than in the material one) and parallel launch of several copies , incl. in one virtual reality and speed of work, i.e. these consciousnesses will be able to communicate with each other, as if they were different people, naturally I am talking about ordinary communication in voice or text messaging, as is happening now in the material world. Unfortunately, the ethical problem of the original copy in this case will not only remain, but even worsen. After all, technically, when copying in digital form, there will be no need to destroy the original. Those. in order for the mind to be able to take advantage of the previously created bagap of itself, it must first solve this ethical problem for itself.

The most interesting things will start later if the mind agrees to permanently destroy and restore itself and its copies in digital form, as well as to various experiments with ourselves (it is much harder to realize whether we are ready to agree to agonizing experiments on ourselves, knowing suffering will experience copies). But it is quite possible that it is with the help of such technology that the real study of mind and consciousness, the study of memory and the possibility of its reading and modification will begin. And what the hell is not joking, suddenly we come to the possibility of combining two or more copies of the same mind into one, with the preservation of memories from both. Then, perhaps, the true development of the mind and artificial intelligence will begin.
Such a development was well demonstrated in science fiction, for example, Pavel Shumil. AMBER. FOREIGN GAME .