Quote:
Originally posted by CSflim
We construct an artificial neuron out of plastic/semiconductors/whatever. It opperates in the same way as a biological neuron.
We then replace a single neuron in your brain with this artificial neuron.
Are you still you?
Well the obvious answer is yes.
There's no fundamental difference to this, than recieving an artifical heart.
Also it is possible for a single brain cell to die, without losing your "sense of self"
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Great topic, and i'd like to raise a point. Unfortunately, its been a few years since ive done the research, so i cant remember the name of the guy. Ill add it in if i can find it, but if someone else knows the name, by all means throw it in.
Anyway, i would say that you would not be you at all after inserting an artifical neuron, and in fact, you may very well cease to be. The experiment that i am referring to, was done by <insert name here> on an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). What he wanted to do, was to 'evolve' a circuit (For those of you who don't know what an FPGA is, um, for simplicites sake, its a logic device, that allows you to program some code, from which it creates an equivalent circuit) that could discern between a high frequency and low frequency signal, using only 100 gates (way way smaller than then smallest design humans can make). He created 50 random sets of instructions, and loaded them into the FPGA. Then, he culled every instruction set except a few that did the closest to what he wanted it to, and then, using those few instruction sets, created 50 subsets containing random parts of the original surviving instruction sets. He repeated the process, calling new batch a generation.
By, uh, around the 6100th generation of this, i think, he had created a fully functional circuit that could perfectly tell the difference between the high and low frequencies, and output different voltages for the two frequencies.
The funny thing is, of the 100 gates allocated, only 39 gates were used by the final circuit (incidentally, nobody understands how the hell the final circuit works, but it does). But, (and heres why this is relevant), if even one unused gate was taken away, the whole circuit collapsed, and did not work. The theory behind this is that the circuit evolved to work with what was given to it.
If you replace that neuron, regardless of what you do, it will not be identical to a human neuron, and as such, there is a possibility that the entire system will come to a screeching halt. So, id say yes, there is a possibility that every single brain cell is required in order for you to be you.
Heh, this thread reminds me of a rather unsettling thought i had a few weeks ago: How do you know that you were really you one minute ago?
