Robin Hanson: What would happen if we upload our brains to computers?
Does humanity have a future as uploaded minds? In his work, Robin Hanson asks this and other extra-large questions. Full bio
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as smart as people,
accumulating better software,
that may take centuries.
powerful theories of intelligence.
from the human brain.
three technologies to be good enough,
lots of cheap, fast, parallel computers.
to scan individual human brains
connected to what, of what type.
computer models
changing interval state
of all the kinds of brain cells
a good enough model of an entire brain,
input-output behavior as the original.
it might do them.
everything would change.
about this idea for decades,
Or is it just an empty machine?
is that me or someone else?"
that I'm going to ignore ...
to guess what would happen,
I'm offering analysis.
what's most likely to happen
by something I tell you here,
of their life in virtual reality.
if you were using virtual reality.
you might hear gulls flying above,
on your cheeks or smell seawater,
a lot of time here,
make a phone call,
you would look like in virtual reality,
would look like in virtual reality.
sitting in a server rack somewhere.
and experience the same thing.
that virtual reality isn't entirely real,
as this room feels to you now
some more action possibilities.
runs at the same speed,
computer hardware to run faster or slower,
seems to be going too fast,
would seem to slow down.
a copy of itself at that moment.
everything the same,
looking at the same speed,
"You are the copy."
usually in practice.
the computer that represents its brain,
at the speed of light,
with ems near that new location.
what ems can do.
to understand three key facts.
the human they emulate would do
are very human.
they're living in a different world.
real resources to survive.
energy, cooling, or they can't exist.
that an em experiences,
had to work to pay for it.
quicker than the em economy,
to em subsistence levels.
most of the time.
this is what ems usually see:
you might think, is exotic and strange,
in human history,
all wild animals have ever lived,
in this situation.
what it takes to survive,
so much about the em world.
about what they want
what it takes to survive.
from the point of view of the ems --
and look at their whole world.
much faster than ours,
we would experience in a century or two,
this age much beyond that,
will happen, I don't know what.
runs even faster,
thousands of years in this year or two,
is actually changing more slowly
in a small number of very dense cities.
themselves in virtual reality,
physically crammed together.
feels really painfully slow,
away from the em cities
really aren't that interested in it.
all of the capital in this world.
their wealth grows very fast.
don't actually own that much
they need to acquire sufficient assets,
unproductive retirees around us today,
and take their stuff.
the institutions we share with them.
retire in peace during the age of em.
the age of em only lasts a year or two
of the few hundred most productive humans.
compared to the typical human,
Nobel Prize winner,
perhaps with nostalgia and gratitude,
how you think about your ancestors.
differ in terms of productivity.
to predict features of ems --
conscientious, hard-working,
of the kinds of variety that humans do,
and profession,
is mind speed.
faster than human speed,
slower than human speed.
markers of high status.
They win arguments.
of our literature.
if you pay the price.
they can't influence much,
so what's the point?
in the structure of their lives.
and you end, really simple.
some short-term copies
those short term versions in a moment,
for the next day.
when there's more demand for that.
the future's going.
who elaborate that,
larger, more coherent designs.
for the last 20 years,
two hours a day, a life of leisure.
every day they had a thousand copies,
went on to the next day.
well over 99 percent of the time.
a life of leisure.
You start and you end.
if at the start of party,
you would not remember that party
"I'm about to die, this is terrible.
because they won't remember what I do."
I just won't remember what I did."
a short-term copy
attitude possibilities.
creature with a short life. I hate this."
who won't remember this part."
that second attitude,
but because it helps them get along.
we must invade Iraq,
and a copy of you can go inside a safe,
from your copy to yourself,
there is a good reason.
to evaluate this world.
if you love it or hate it.
from thousands of years ago
they heard about it,
is really just weird.
you should really learn a lot about it,
work to change it.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robin Hanson - Futurist, social scientistDoes humanity have a future as uploaded minds? In his work, Robin Hanson asks this and other extra-large questions.
Why you should listen
In his book, The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth, Robin Hanson re-imagines humanity's role as our tech becomes smarter. A pioneer in prediction markets, also known as information markets and idea futures, Hanson has been known since the 1980s for taking the very very long view on topics as varied as (a selected list) spatial product competition, health incentive contracts, group insurance, product bans, evolutionary psychology and bioethics of health care, voter information incentives, incentives to fake expertise, Bayesian classification, agreeing to disagree, self-deception in disagreement, probability elicitation, wiretaps, image reconstruction, the history of science prizes, reversible computation, the origin of life, the survival of humanity, very long term economic growth, growth given machine intelligence and interstellar colonization.
Meanwhile, he has developed new technologies for conditional, combinatorial and intermediated trading, and he studied insider trading, manipulation and other foul play. Hanson is associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. His next book is The Elephant in the Brain, co-authored with Kevin Simler, due in 2018.
Robin Hanson | Speaker | TED.com