Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> Peter Jones writes:
>
> [Stathis Papaioannou]
>
>>>> 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. This gives rise to the issues of quantum immortality and the
>>>> white rabbit problem, as discussed at great length in the past on this list.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> One way to discredit all this foolishness is to abandon computationalism...
>
>
> [Brent Meeker]
>
>>> I don't see how assuming consciousness is non-computational solves any of
>>> these conundrums about every object implementing every possible computation.
>
>
>
>> It would mean that every object implementing every possible computation doesn't
>> imply that every object is conscious. Of course, one can also deny that
>> conclusion be regading computation as structural rather than semantic.
>
>
> You don't have to go as far as saying that *computation* is structural rather than
> semantic. You only need to say that *consciousness* is structural, and hence
> non-computational. That's what some cognitive scientists have done, eg. Penrose,
> Searle, Maudlin. Personally, I don't see why there is such a disdain for the idea
> that every computation is implemented, including every conscious computation. The
> idea is still consistent with all the empirical facts, since we can only interact
> with a special subset of computations, implemented on conventional computers and
> brains.
>
> Stathis Papaioannou
Unless you can say what it is about a computation that makes it a unique computation
to us and what it is about a computation that makes is conscious, then nothing has
been gained. Clearly it is not true that we can interact only with computations in
brains and computers. We can interact with pool balls and molecules and weather and
lots of other things.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Mon Sep 04 2006 - 21:28:13 PDT