Neuropsychism
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Neuropsychism |
Neuropsychism
is a set of related philosophical beliefs, all sharing the basic
premise that
mentalities arising from
biont-style
neural brains are qualitatively superior
to those which do not, such as digital software entities.
There
is a wide
spectrum of beliefs within the neuropsychist position, varying from
that of the
most extreme hu supremacist
groups, who hold that only naturally
evolved
biobrains posses true consciousness while all others (even those of
provolves
or neogens)
are automata, to that held by some extremist vec groups,
who hold
that their synthetic neural brains are more
“perfected” than those of either
barely conscious bionts or software based wannabe’s, to the
more liberal and
inclusive view of the pansophont neuropsychists, who teach that any
neural-based mentality, natural or synthetic, is superior. How they
treat
beings who arise from the emulation of neurological brains by
software-based
systems also varies. Some might consider them to occupy a middle
ground, while
others treat them as "just another computer program". Some
neuropsychist philosophers of the less liberal persuasion refuse to
acknowledge
software based AI,
and refer to it instead as SI, or "simulated
intelligence".
The
exact
nature of this superiority is often described by such terms as
“authenticity,” “immanence,
imminence, and eminence,” “fluidity,” and
“naturalness.” Most agree that it is
a quality that is difficult to clearly put into words since mind itself
still retains
something of an ineffable quality even after millennia of study.
While some adherents believe
that these
judgements only apply when comparing minds within the same toposophic
level
others believe the comparisons remain valid across all toposophic
levels.
One of the few universal
beliefs among
neuropsychists is that the mentalities created through the use of
mind-state
backups or uploading are not the same persons as the original. They
agree with
some non-neuropsychist philosophies that the mind is inextricably bound
to
particular ensembles of matter with just the right set of properties
both
structural and dynamic. What they add to this is the placement of the
various
types of mind into a hierarchical structure so that a software analogue
of a
particular real world brain cannot, by definition, be a true iteration
or
continuation of the original. (Critics point out that this last line of
reasoning tends to beg the question.) However,
some do use information stored in mind-state backups in case of the
need to
repair non-fatal brain trauma.
They have a related view
regarding
changing
one's mental substrate. While most believe this practice does not
provide true
continuity of being, some allow for it if there is a one-to-one
incremental
replacement of neurons with neurodes (artificial neurons) or vice
versa. Some in
this latter group require that each individual neuron or neurode be
incrementally transformed.
Belief in neuropsychism is
independent
of belief
in a soul or spirit.
Neuropsychism
does not preclude the development of distributed minds as the existence
of
group minds and various polysomatic bionts and vecs will attest. There
are even
rumors of neuropsychists among the lesser archai who use comm wormholes
to
construct their brain's neural architecture. Neuropsychist philosophies
do not
preclude the use of non-neural style sensory, memory, and intelligence
augmentation, aids, and prosthetics so long as the locus of
consciousness
remains tied to a neural based brain.
While
neuropsychist beliefs are most commonly associated with bionts in the
nearbaseline
public consciousness, there are in fact a number of vec
and aioid
groups and clades that hold such beliefs. One interesting example is
the Encephalonephelai,
or Ensefs. The foglets of these u-fog based entities serve as neurodes
for the
purpose of constructing their mentality in addition to their more
conventional
function as massively parallel processing units that manage somatic
coordination and interneurode signalling routes.
