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+title: "Linked Brain Clone: A Problem of Consciousness Thought Experiment"
+date: May 25, 2021 15:11
+---
+<p>
+Here's a thought experiment I haven't heard before. I'm not sure if it's novel,
+but even if it isn't, it's definitely less well known than the popular thought
+experiments about cloning and the nature consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The question of whether it is possible to preserve a person's mind and
+consciousness is a well known idea in speculative fiction and transhumanist
+thought, as well as touching on more general philosophy and the hard problem of
+consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first thought experiment to consider is one many people have already played
+around with on their own. What happens when you create a perfect copy of a
+brain? If you copy a brain, molecule by molecule, atom by atom, even
+electrical charge by electrical charge to achieve the same state, will the
+object you create be conscious? Would it have the same memories and ideas as the
+source brain?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Assuming no hidden metaphysics that somehow breathe consciousness into our human
+beings, the intuitive answer to the above questions seems to be yes. If our
+intelligence, memories, etc., are all just based on brain structures and
+electrical charges within the brain, a perfect copy should function exactly the
+same as the original.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now suppose we clone your entire body, brain and guts and all. Is this clone
+also "you"? I think the intuitive answer here is that no, it isn't.  You would
+end up with two different seats of consciousness. Each with exactly the same
+memories and ideas, but still different individuals, like identical twins on
+steroids. You wouldn't be able to see through your clone's eyes, hear their
+thoughts. If you were killed, it's not like your consciousness would be
+preserved in your clone's body.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This so far has been fairly common thought experiments that probably most fans
+of sci-fi had encountered at one point or another. This is for example related
+to a common depiction of teleportation, in which the teleportee's body is
+perfectly scanned and destroyed on one end, then rebuilt molecule by molecule
+as an identical copy on the other end. Personally I would never use such a
+device &mdash; while I might appear as the same "he" to my friends after
+teleportation, I don't see any reason to believe the person on the other end
+would be the same "I", and I myself would be dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now comes the "linked brain" part. What if the clone, instead of being built as
+a separate person standing next to you, was initially built as an
+<em>extension</em> of you? What happens if  we first build a second brain
+attached to your own? Let's say the two brains are connected at the brain stem,
+allowing for communication between them. We create a siamese twin for you,
+joined at your brain stem and we give some time for your
+consciousness to "spread" to both brains.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eventually, we separate the two copies. Which one is now "you"? Who is the other
+person and at which point did they become a second consciousness?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Maybe split brain studies can shed some intuitions on these questions. In
+certain experiments, split brain patients appear to be inhabited by two separate
+conscious entities where there once was one. Maybe there's no such thing as
+consciousness and "conscious" thought is just a weird sensory artefact.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<em>I</em> for one definitely feel like I have a singular (though multi-faceted)
+"I" inside of me. But maybe I'm just not enlightened.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Addendum</h3>
+
+<p>
+I guess this thought experiment could also be a modified to an "upload your
+brain to a computer" variant. Suppose we can perfectly simulate a brain inside a
+supercomputer. Let's also assume we have a perfect brain-computer interface (the
+1000th generation of Neuralink) and we link a living human brain to a simulated
+replica of a brain on a super computer. Can these merge into a single
+consciousness? What happens when you unplug?
+</p>