Starting as four-year old, when I taught myself how to read by meticulously typing the words from my picture books into our MS-Dos computer, I consider myself to have grown up quite computer literate. But now, following a course that explores the possibility of machines to resemble us, it seems more like computers are growing literate of humanity.

The working memory capacities of today’s supercomputers still lack behind that of a human brain by about a factor of several millions. Nevertheless, every achievement in neural cognitive sciences brings us closer to a world in which computers might one day think and feel just like us. Already two years ago, scientist from IBM ran an electronic brain which, measurements have confirmed, acts like that of a rat only slower, which corresponds to about 1% of our own brain’s capacity (Hanlon 2009). In 2009 the same group of scientists was even able to electronically recreate a machine that closely resembled the in-cortex activity of a cat (Burt 2009). Researcher Henry Markram goes so far as to claims that we will be able to build an electronic human brain within 10 years (Hanlon 2009). Such a machine would not be able to perceive and evaluate data much in the same way as a human brain would. But what would be the effects?

Assuming that our consciousness does not come from something other than our pure matter (say, a soul), science might eventually end up with artificial brains in a vat. Sure, they would be incredibly useful additions to our existing machine taskforce; they could perform human tasks at a much higher speed with lower expenditures. But if these computers will be able to sense, think, dream and feel as we do, would we then not have to treat them as human beings?

Don’t get me wrong, such brains cannot even yet imagine a color or make a clear connection between emotions and facial expressions; so it is hard to think of them demanding voting rights all too soon. But letting them do work that we are not able, or more likely not willing to perform; in a classical human context, that would be called slavery.

It sounds like science-fiction now but I, for my part, am quite sure that the creation of and experimentation on such artificial, most probably terrified, consciousnesses in laboratories will pose a new dimension of ethical dilemmas for us. Not only that, but it also burdens us with a responsibility towards those beings, which mankind has never before dealt with. Maybe the brains will, much like humans would, consider their treatment unethical and start discussing their own fate with us – or we will indeed have a Matrix-like revolution. But before it comes to that my question is: How far do you think should we allow science to create human consciousness? And if it become possible in the future, to what extent would conscious machines deserve to be treated with rights equal to ours?

Burt, Jeffrey. (2009, November 18). IBM gets closer to computer that acts like a human brain. Retrieved from http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IBM-Gets-Closer-to-Computer-t...

Hanlon, Michael. (2009, August 11). Are we On the brink of creating a computer with a human brain?. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1205677/Are-brink-creatin...