Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Digital people FAQ, Cold Takes, July 27.
A digital person is a person running on digital computing hardware. Karnofsky (2021a) uses the term to refer to human whole brain emulations as well as digital "descendants" of humans:[1]
Karnofsky (2021b) writes that "the transformative potential of something like digital people, combined with how quickly AI [artificial intelligence] could lead to it, form the case that we could be in the most important century".[2]
Most of this piece
[theDigital People FAQ[2]]would apply to roughly any digital entities that (a) had moral value and human rights, like non-digital people; (b) could interact with their environments with equal (or greater) skill and ingenuity to today's people. With enough understanding of how (a) and (b) work, it could be possible to design digital people without imitating human brains.
Karnofsky, Holden (2021a) Digital People Would Be An Even Bigger Deal, Cold Takes, July 27.
Karnofsky, Holden (2021b) Digital people FAQ, Cold Takes, July 27.
Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Digital people would be an even bigger deal, Cold Takes, July 27.
Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Digital people FAQ, Cold Takes, July 27.
As Holden Karnofsky uses theas well as digital "descendants" of
term toterm, "digital person" may refer to human whole brain emulationshumans:humans.[1]Karnofsky writes that "the transformative potential of something like digital people, combined with how quicklyAIcould leadAccording toit, form the case that we could be in the most important century".[2]In particular, Karnofsky argues thatKarnofsky, digital people would have the same moral standing as humans (cf. moral patient), would accelerate economic growth and scientificprogress,progress, and could cause a"lock-"lock-in" ofvalues.values. For this reason, Karnofskywrites:"The central case I'll focus on is that of digital people just like us, perhaps created via mind uploading (simulating human brains). However, one could also imagine entities unlike us in many ways, but still properly thought of as "descendants" of humanity; those would be digital people as well." Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Digital people would be an even bigger deal, Cold Takes, July 27.
Karnofsky, Holden (2021) Digital people FAQ, Cold Takes, July 27.