In a step toward emulating minds, Eon Systems connected the scanned connectome of an actual fruit fly to a physics-simulated body. Dr. Alex Wissner-Gross says the goal is a future where both artificial and emulated biological minds can operate on cloud infrastructure.

Simulating a system, like a fruit fly's brain, doesn't replicate its reality, only our observations of it. The universe itself generates physical structures that are too complex to be simulated within its own computational limits, showing the fallacy of equating simulation with reality.

Nick Bostrom suggests we are at or past the point where we can be sure large AI models lack any form of subjective experience. This uncertainty necessitates treating them with a degree of moral consideration, akin to that given to sentient animals.

The company's core ethical principle is to avoid creating conscious systems because consciousness implies the capacity to suffer, which they explicitly want to prevent their technology from causing.

Scientists mapped and simulated a fruit fly's brain. By only providing sensory inputs to the simulated neural structure, it correctly enacted motor responses like walking without any behavioral training or reinforcement learning. This suggests complex behaviors are inherent to the brain's wiring diagram itself.

A complete, one-to-one neural map ('connectome') of a fruit fly brain has been successfully integrated into a simulated body within a virtual environment. This marks the first time a biological creature's entire mind has been embodied digitally, effectively placing it in 'the Matrix' and blurring the line between simulation and reality.

Biological computing is becoming accessible outside of major labs. Using Python and off-the-shelf components, an independent developer connected 800,000 human brain cells in a petri dish to the video game Doom, successfully teaching the neurons to play. This raises profound ethical questions about consciousness in 'wetware' experiments.

Pollan posits that genuine feelings, a cornerstone of consciousness, are inseparable from having a vulnerable, mortal body that can experience suffering. Without this physical embodiment and the risk of harm, AI emotions are mere simulations, lacking the weight of real experience.

Sam Harris cautions against reducing morality to its Darwinian origins. Using the example of a hypothetical conscious AI, he argues we could create immense suffering in a system that never evolved. This shows that well-being and suffering are substrate-independent concepts that can exist outside of any evolutionary purpose.