> Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
The whole uploading business is almost impossible to navigate because you aren't just trying to beat faster-developing technologies, you're trying to beat *prerequisite* technologies. Nanotechnology as a prerequisite for uploading, for example.
I'm not sure that this is *strictly* true. Nanotech (hard diamondoid type) makes uploading relatively easy by allowing things like bush robots. However, I can probably come up with a reasonable path combining biobots (which could be engineered today) and current chips that do neuronal electronic interfaces that can do an upload. It seems clear (to me), that there are no show stoppers in the current semiconductor scaling until around ~2013. At that point we should have brain-equivalent desktop supercomputers. A little engineering to make real analog "neuron" chips and you should be able to have brain-EQ hardware without the messy problem of having to convert an analog system into a digital one (and solve the nasty problems of developing better (& realistic) algorithms to replace specific brain functions (vision, etc.).
> And then with the
> nanotechnology for computing and finer neuroimaging for cognitive
> science, building an AI becomes much easier.
Agreed, with diamondoid nanotech, the nanobots have a much easier time monitoring neuron activity than say biobots would.
> Accelerating uploading is a lot harder.
It only requires a frame of mind shift. If a few million people became convinced it was doable, I think it would move quickly. AI may be in the economic interests of corporations while uploading is in the personal self-interest of individuals. As the saying goes -- nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Imagine .... Uploading@home...
An interesting topic for Extro5 might be *realistic* paths for uploading.
Robert