From a morality standpoint, what is the difference between shutting it down and an indefinite state of stasis? The brain wouldn't know any different, it would just cease to process for a period of time, and then resume processing later. It would be just like a blackout. Except since the brain only receives stimulus from a simulated environment, the environment could be frozen as well.
So, if everything freezes and restarts at a later time, the brain would not perceive any missing time.
You're assuming isolation. No feedback. It wouldn't perceive any missing time if it had no contact with the outer world. I think that's treating the brain as if it was just a computer.
Ahh, that's an excellent point; for any of my argument to stand, it would definitely require full isolation (akin to what the current Blue Brain has right now).
If they simulate my brain molecule by molecule, and consciousness emerges, which one is really me? If my physical self is then killed, do I in fact still exist inside the simulation? In which case, is it OK to kill off my superfluous physical presence in order to use my organs to help others? What rights does the simulated me have?
Okay, these guys aren't anywhere near simulating an entire brain molecule by molecule. There's a big difference between this and being able to simulate the storage of a memory.
Also, the estimates of the total complexity of the brain may have all been greatly underestimated. We now have strong evidence from evolutionary Proteomics that each synapse has considerable complexity and is itself involved in computation. This makes perfect sense: the synapse must have evolved from the molecular sensing and navigation mechanisms of single celled Eukaryotes, and these are clearly capable of some computation.
I'm just extrapolating. Given exponential increases in computational power, it's a pretty small jump, I think, to imagine full brain simulation from what they're doing.
As I read through this article, my first thought was, what if they do create a full, human-like brain. Would it be immoral to then shut it down?