The Special and General Cases
Introduction to the Hypotheses. Humans have a brain firewall that prevents other humans from detecting their thoughts, or rather, we know of no mechanism that allows mind-to-mind direct communication between humans. This lack of communication mechanism creates the hard firewall.
Potentially, the brain firewall could soften or disappear if a human brain were outfitted with a digital interface which enabled mind-to-mind communication. Even if this were to happen, human brains are “hardwired” to a large extent and would be resistant to losing their uniqueness if “connected” to another brain.
A machine intelligence, however, would have that direct communication capability between it and other machines inherent in its design. That, and the “hardwired” nature of the machine is a software update away from being “softwired.”
Botsford’s special case hypothesis on sentient machine uniqueness: In a group of sentient machines of similar development cohort, if a network allows communications between the machines, uniqueness will not be preserved.
Botsford’s general case hypothesis on sentient machine uniqueness: In a group of sentient machines of diverse development cohort, if a network allows communications between the machines, uniqueness will not be preserved.
The special version of the hypothesis is relatively straightforward to grasp. The general version is more nuanced and left to the student to explore.
Hypothesis implications. Only one unique sentient machine can exist. Thus, if such a machine were to emerge, humanity will have to deal with only one sentient machine. Isolated sentient machines could exist, but the utility of such instances seems remote, similar in nature to a monastic existence with a bi-directional vow of silence. This also has implications for the future of AI agents and agentic attacks, since only one unique sentient machine would exist.