Dramatis Personae: Myself, Oldest Heir
Scene: Walk to school one semi-brisk October morning
OH: . . .So, anyway, I think the way this could work is --theoretically, anyway --you replace each neuron in the brain one at a time with an artificial one. That way you don't interrupt the continuity of consciousness and you eventually get consciousness in a completely artificial brain.
M: That's an interesting thought experiment. What about the body?
OH: Same basic strategy.
M: What about metabolism?
OH: What about it?
M: Well, I mean --you'd need some sort of energy intake. You know, an external source of energy.
OH: Yeah. I mean, look, what I'm going for here is really total self-sufficiency and physical immortality, OK?
M: Uh, doesn't the law of entropy forbid that?
OH: What?
M: Entropy. No closed system is a hundred per cent efficient, kinda thing? So you need some external energy source. Chemical, nuclear, whatever.
(Pause)
OH: OK, you know what I'm hearing? Quitter talk, that's what I'm hearing.
No comments:
Post a Comment