Re: computationalism and supervenience

From: Russell Standish <r.standish.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:58:43 +1000

On Tue, Aug 22, 2006 at 01:18:06PM -0000, 1Z wrote:
>
> That is an interesting point. However, a computation would have to be
> associated
> with all related branches in order to bring all the counterfactuals (or
> rather
> conditionals) into a single computation.
>
> (IOW treating branches individually would fall back into the problems
> of the Movie approach)
>
> If a computation is associated with all branches, consciousness will
> also be
> according to computationalism. That will bring on a White Rabbit
> problem with a vengeance.

Not really, as conscious experience is only associated with one
branch, but multiple branches are needed to have any conscious
experience at all.

The WR problem is solved by the robustness solution Alistair Malcolm
and I worked out years ago. We have good evolutionary reasons to
suppose robustness is an essential feature of consciousness.

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Received on Tue Aug 22 2006 - 22:17:31 PDT