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Sure, if you remove the brain or delete the weights then the human or LLM are different than they were.
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> Sure, if you remove the brain or delete the weights then the human or LLM are different than they were.

If you delete the hardware and buy new hardware and write in the same weights its still the same LLM. If you delete your brain, get a new brain and put in the same weights in the neurons its a clone, its not you. We know what happens when we create a clone, the clones aren't the same person they are separate consciousness, so consciousness is tied to the hardware.

For example, if we have 5 identical clones down to the atoms of their brains, and send a message to the first and let him respond, then send the same message to the second together with the firsts response and let them add a new message etc. That is not one consciousness responding, thats 5 different consciousnesses responding, and that process doesn't connect them into a single consciousness. That is how LLM works, at best a single token generation is conscious, but that would be a less meaningful consciousness than a ringworm.

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> If you delete your brain, get a new brain and put in the same weights in the neurons its a clone, its not you.

Your whole argument hinges on this, and I don't think it's true.

A clone is not what you describe, not even close. Clones are copies of DNA, not of the actual physical neuron structures.

If you were to vanish, and the next moment a perfect atom-for-atom, particle-for-particle, quark-for-quark copy appear in exactly the same place, I think that is you. As far as I know, that does happen every single planck second.

For it to be you, though, it needs to occupy the same space you were previously in. You can't copy your atoms 5 times over in 5 different locations; those aren't you, they're just similar. Like copying an LLM 5 times over to different hardware, seeding its RNG differently each time.

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