Can a computer program become conscious? Would it be a person?
Many neuroscientists and AI researchers have hypothesised that consciousness is not a structural phenomenon, but rather is software constructed during development that runs as a virtual machine on the brain’s hardware. This is supported by studies of hemispherectomy patients, who can manage to live a perfectly normal life despite missing half their brain.
What are the implications of this for the idea of what a person is? Do you think a brain program on a computer, in the presence of appropriate inputs, could develop into a normal human mind?
This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.