Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> Peter Jones writes:
>
>
>> Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>>
>>
>>> If every computation is implemented everywhere anyway, this is equivalent to
>>> the situation where every computation exists as a platonic object, or every
>>> computation exists implemented on some computer or brain in a material
>>> multiverse.
>>
>> But if implementing a particular computation depends on an observer, or a
>> dicitonary, or somesuch, it is not the case that everything implements every
>> computation unless it can be shown that evey dictionary somehow exists as well.
>
>
> The computation provides its own observer if it is conscious, by definition.
I'm always suspicious of things that are true "by definition". How exactly does an
observer provide meaning or whatever it is that makes a computation? And how does
consciousness fulfill this function. I, in my conscious thoughts, certainly don't
"observe" the computation that my brain performs. In fact my thoughts seem to spring
from nowhere more or less spontaneously in coherent trains or as prompted by
perceptions.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Mon Sep 04 2006 - 15:06:18 PDT