Sue walked into the kitchen, looking for something. She turned, looked at me, smiled, then walked out, still looking.
I love Sue. What does that mean? What does it mean to love someone? This is not exactly an original question. It is a question that countless people have asked, over countless eons.
But when I ask the question, I am asking the question as a more fundamental level. At a level not of personalities and emotion, but at the level of biochemistry, physics, fields.
So what does it mean to say I love Sue?
If she looked different, would I still love her? Certainly.
If she moved differently, would I still love her? Of course.
If she spoke differently, would I still love her? Definitely.
So what is it about her that I love? Well, her personality. What most people say is the core of who we are.
So I love Sue's personality. What is that personality? That personality is defined by how her brain works. It is defined by the configuration of the neurons in her brain. In particular, its is defined by the action potentials in the synapses between those neurons.
If we could reproduce those action potentials in an electronic device, would that be Sue? Would I love the machine? Would the machine think it was Sue? Would it be conscious, self aware?
The only reasonable answers to those questions is yes. Of course, we are hundreds if not thousands of years away from actually doing something like that. But it is possible, in principle.
Now that brain configuration can be represented by numbers. Alot of numbers, but still, just numbers. Numbers that define the connections between neurons and synapses in Sue's brain, numbers that define the action potentials, numbers that define how those items interact and evolve over time, based on internal and external stimuli.
So Sue is nothing but numbers. Numbers that define the configuration of Sue's brain. Numbers that define her personality. Numbers that ARE Sue.
So I don't love 'Sue', I love the numbers that represent Sue's personality.
But clearly, when Sue walked into the kitchen, she wasn't using her full brain, she wasn't using ALL of those numbers. Would say only a subset of her brain, of her numbers, be enough to illicit that feeling of love? How sophisticated would a simulation of Sue need to be to be lovable? Could someone create a Sue simulation in a mechanical Sue that was not self-aware, that was designed solely to illicit love? Probably.
And her numbers, if I changed those numbers, would she still be Sue? We all agree that someone who has plastic surgery done on their body is still the same person. But what happens when we can make changes to the personality? At what point does Sue stop being Sue, and start being a different person? Would I love a 95% Sue? How about a 65% Sue? Or is there a core of Sue that every Sue-copy would need to have to be considered 'Sue-like'? Would these Sue-like copies think that they were Sue?
There is so much that is a mystery. I know intellectually that Sue is nothing but numbers, nothing but information. But emotionally, spiritually, I think of Sue as more than just a computer program. I think of her as a soul, with self awareness, with internal thoughts that I cannot access, but that exist for her and her soul. I think that if I modified her brain, her computer program if you will, She would still be Sue. She may behave differently, but she would still be Sue.
But thats not logical. I love a collection of numbers. Her 'thought', her self awareness, is nothing but those numbers changing. Thats all, no more, no less. Not only that, but if those numbers were very different, the personality they represent would no longer be Sue. They would be someone, something else. I wouldnt love them.
Sue walked back into the kitchen. She, stopped, looked at me quizzically.
"You have a weird expression on your face. What on earth are you thinking?"
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