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by wonderwonder 761 days ago
I think OP means how do we know that the brain tissue that is being used in the experiment is not conscious.

Here is a man that lived a normal life with 90% of his brain damaged, a large portion of that just completely missing.

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-man-who-lives-without-90-of-h...

2 comments

Sneaky paragraph at the bottom:

> Update 3 Jan 2017: This man has a specific type of hydrocephalus known as chronic non-communicating hydrocephalus, which is where fluid slowly builds up in the brain. Rather than 90 percent of this man's brain being missing, it's more likely that it's simply been compressed into the thin layer you can see in the images above. We've corrected the story to reflect this.

I did not see that actually, thank you.

The fact our brain can be compressed to that level is pretty crazy too, although not as impressive as the original missing 90% :)

You're welcome :)

I very nearly missed it on that page, despite already being aware of the detail from other sources.

Network pruning.

In ANNs, pruning 90% of the weights without substantial loss isn't unheard of. I guess this may be analogous: continuous pruning and fine tuning over a lifetime. Though, is removing 90% of the brain more analogous to 90% of weights, or 90% of the rank?