Re: implementations

From: Jacques M Mallah <jqm1584.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 12:59:22 -0400

On 9 xxx -1, Marchal wrote:
> Oh ! It could help me if you answer the following question:
> Suppose you are right and you solve the implementation
> problem (in your sense).
> So you get a correctly implemented computer. This one is still
> emulable by a Turing Machine, correctly programmed, OK ?
>
> The running of that Turing machine will, if I understand you,
> be responsible for the presence of consciousness. OK ?
>
> What will happen, in this case, if a part of the machine doesn't
> work, and if an accidental bunch of cosmic rays, supplies to the
> non-functionning during some time. Will there still be
> consciousness during that time ?

        It depends how important the broken part is. The rest of the
computer would still function and the data from the broken part (supplied
by the coincidental rays) would act as input. The human brain has several
backup systems. If the broken part was big and of major importance, then
there would not be consciousness during that time.

                         - - - - - - -
              Jacques Mallah (jqm1584.domain.name.hidden)
       Graduate Student / Many Worlder / Devil's Advocate
"I know what no one else knows" - 'Runaway Train', Soul Asylum
            My URL: http://pages.nyu.edu/~jqm1584/
Received on Sat Jul 10 1999 - 10:00:48 PDT

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