Re: Self vs. other (was Re: Balance of power)

From: Matt Mahoney (matmahoney@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu May 01 2008 - 08:54:58 MDT


--- William Pearson <wil.pearson@gmail.com> wrote:
> > You are assuming that if your brain were augmented with silicon,
> > that the
> > carbon part would be in control. Information flows both ways.
>
> True, but not all information is equally able to alter the state of
> the systems (brains and computers)

>From an information theoretic point of view, if one bit of input
information does not alter the state of the receiver by one bit of
conditional algorithmic complexity, then communication was wasted.

I suppose it matters where the augmented part of the brain receives its
input. If the only connection is to your brain (so it serves as
additional memory or a calculator), then it just makes you smarter.
But I think that people will also want to use it as a communication
device like we use computers to access the internet.

It is not that having machines control your behavior is fundamentally
bad. It's that humans believe they have free choice and don't want it
taken away. A brain interface doesn't have to force you to do X
instead of Y. It just gives you information so that you believe X is a
better choice.

-- Matt Mahoney, matmahoney@yahoo.com



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