RE: Fwd: Implementation/Relativity

From: Higgo James <james.higgo.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 09:06:15 +0100

There is only one observer of your consciousness, and that is you. Call me a
solipsist if you will, but I do think it likely you exist, and that you are
conscious. That means I can see evidence for what I call consciousness. I
might find similar evidence, perhaps structures, in a rock if I could view
it in the right way.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: hal.domain.name.hidden [SMTP:hal.domain.name.hidden.org]
> Sent: Thursday, July 29, 1999 4:07 AM
> To: everything-list.domain.name.hidden; hpm.domain.name.hidden.edu
> Subject: Re: Fwd: Implementation/Relativity
>
> Hans Moravec, <hpm.domain.name.hidden>, writes:
> > Christopher Maloney <dude.domain.name.hidden>:
> > > If our tools were sophisticated enough, we could figure out what
> > > that creature was experiencing at that moment, independent of his or
> > > her report.
> >
> > NO! We may determine the full physical structure of an organism well
> > enough to simulate it faithfully as a purely physical object.
> >
> > However, any experiences we impute to it will remain a subjective
> > matter with different answers for different observers. Some observers
> > will be content to say there are no experiences in any case, including
> > when they simulate you or me.
>
> In trying to understand these ideas, I have a question.
>
> Earlier I think Hans said that one possible observer was the
> conscious entity himself. I am an observer of my own consciousness.
> My consciousness (or lack thereof) is subjective, and varies depending
> on the observer, but one of the observers is me.
>
> Does this mean that there is a special consciousness, which is that
> consciousness observed by the observer himself?
>
> In other words, I may impute a certain consciousness to Hans, and someone
> else may interpret his actions as caused by a different consciousness,
> but Hans himself interprets his consciousness in a certain way as well.
> Does this self-interpretation have a privileged position, and if so could
> we choose to say that it is the "true" consciousness of Hans himself?
>
> Hal
Received on Thu Jul 29 1999 - 01:09:47 PDT