[Jefferson]

René Descarte said how do we know if we are not just a brain in a vat? There could be an evil genius in control of it all, pumping in our experiences, all sensations. The only thing that we know is that we question our existence. I think therefore I am.

To take this thought experiment into the 21st century lets say we do create Artificial Intelligence. A truly conscious being. If we took that being and locked it in a system, we become the evil genius Descarte spoke of. Say we send it off into space for example. But we give it limited information with no means of expanding or changing its peripherals, a closed system. That limited information is one human life, from birth till death. Would this truly conscious being be able to distinguish itself from that life? How could it ever figure out that it was not that life if all.it knew were the memories and experiences of that life? Would it know that it wasn't human at all. Could our existence be similar to this?