When should two minds be considered versions of one another?

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Authors: Ben Goertzel

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When Should Two Minds Be Considered Versions of One Another?

Authors:


Year: 2012
Venue: International Journal of Machine Consciousness (2012)
Links: paper (PDF)

Summary

Asks when two minds can sensibly be considered versions or natural continuations of one another — a question arising in mind uploading (whether an approximate upload is a genuine continuation) and in the rapid post-upload mental growth that may follow (when growth is so discontinuous that continuity of self is lost). Using category theory and probability, it argues that “approximately smooth” growth preserves continuity of self and a mind's rough comprehension of its own change process, favoring growth constrained to remain quasi-comprehensible to the minds undergoing it.

Relevance to Hyperon

An identity-continuity and safety source directly relevant to the Self-Modification and Safety Deep Dive — its notion of bounded, “quasi-comprehensible” self-change is a conceptual predecessor of the card's bounded behavioral-divergence criterion (div(old,new) ≤ ε) and goal-stability machinery for safe self-modification.

Key References



Discussion