notes : modular conscious entities
Once conscious systems are virtualized, we will have the ability to do some unusual things, for example : separate two halves of the brain and putting them on different tasks, or turning off inhibition at will. Such events happen already, and are caused by damage to or sugical manipulation of the human brain. For a virtual conscious system ( or a heavily modified biological neural system ), we should be able to recreate these events reliably and reversibly.
Furthermore, it may be possible to swap bits of different individuals. I am not sure if I mean individuals in the human sense or individuals as conscious software entities. A mature human consciousness would not take well to having its frontal lobe swapped out for that of another person, but it may be able to handle, with practice, swapping out sensory-motor modules. If you train modules from the start (from birth, or from first awakening for a software entity) to be able to be swapped, we could create a set of self assembling processing modules that could instantly adapt to new problems. However, If you try to use bits of "people" in this framework they might go insane rather quickly.
What might be more feasible would be extremely high bandwidth communication between normal humans, using implantable electrode arrays. It would be like using a language more expressive than any spoken language. Depending on exactly how you link together separate individuals, you may get radically different results. For instance, wiring one man's motor cortex to another man's frontal lobe would seem like a very bad thing, since having your super-ego controlled by your friend's left toe is never a good idea. A person would probably be able to use a direct sensory-motor link though, since this would more closely resemble normal communication, like speech.
It is also possible that strong, human level, artificial intelligence will first emerge from such a modular framework. I am not extremely familiar with the state of the art in software AI, but I believe that as the field progresses the training of a software solution for a task will become a significant part of the development process. I can imagine the day that someone takes a group of pre-trained software AIs and links them together under a common executive module, and accidentally creates something we might call conscious.

Furthermore, it may be possible to swap bits of different individuals. I am not sure if I mean individuals in the human sense or individuals as conscious software entities. A mature human consciousness would not take well to having its frontal lobe swapped out for that of another person, but it may be able to handle, with practice, swapping out sensory-motor modules. If you train modules from the start (from birth, or from first awakening for a software entity) to be able to be swapped, we could create a set of self assembling processing modules that could instantly adapt to new problems. However, If you try to use bits of "people" in this framework they might go insane rather quickly.
What might be more feasible would be extremely high bandwidth communication between normal humans, using implantable electrode arrays. It would be like using a language more expressive than any spoken language. Depending on exactly how you link together separate individuals, you may get radically different results. For instance, wiring one man's motor cortex to another man's frontal lobe would seem like a very bad thing, since having your super-ego controlled by your friend's left toe is never a good idea. A person would probably be able to use a direct sensory-motor link though, since this would more closely resemble normal communication, like speech.
It is also possible that strong, human level, artificial intelligence will first emerge from such a modular framework. I am not extremely familiar with the state of the art in software AI, but I believe that as the field progresses the training of a software solution for a task will become a significant part of the development process. I can imagine the day that someone takes a group of pre-trained software AIs and links them together under a common executive module, and accidentally creates something we might call conscious.
