Stephen Downes

Matt Webb is feeling some qualms about the way the fruit fly connectome (ie., the full map of neurons and the connections between them) of the fruit fly is being used for fun and games on the internet. "Do I imagine that the simulated fruit fly is someone being trapped and tormented, again and again and again, in a software prison? No, the fruit fly connectome is unlikely to be sentient. (But) at some point on the scale, sentience starts to be meaningful." Future AI might be based on a kernel of very real connections and weights, something that - perhaps - requires our ethical consideration. Suppose you copied your cat's connectome to create an AI. Suppose you copied your nephew's. Your own.