Mind-Copying: The Philosophical and Ethical Challenge of Digital Consciousness

In a commentary for NZZ.ch, philosopher and entrepreneur Lajos Balog, based in Lucerne, argues that the technology for copying a human mind is approaching reality, and our philosophy and ethics are unprepared. He highlights that quantum computing and brain-computer interfaces are advancing rapidly, with companies like Google, IBM, Microsoft, Neuralink, and Synchron investing heavily. The human brain has approximately 86 billion neurons and 100 trillion synaptic connections, making full emulation impossible for classical computers but potentially feasible with quantum computing. Balog references philosopher Derek Parfit's 'Reasons and Persons' (1984), which questioned personal identity, and notes that the 'hard problem of consciousness' remains unsolved. He raises ethical questions about the moral status of mind copies, their rights, and the implications for death and identity. He points out that large language models already run as thousands of simultaneous instances, challenging our concepts of entity and identity. Balog concludes that we need a philosophy and ethics that think faster, before the technology becomes a reality, as the timeline is five to ten years, a blink in philosophical history.