On 9/5/06, 1Z <peterdjones.domain.name.hidden> wrote:
>
>
> Brent Meeker wrote:
> > 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.
>
> But we can't interact with more than one of the computations
> a pool ball is supposedly performing -- the rest are just hypothetical
> possibilities.
I can agree for non-conscious computation... but if consciousness is
computation, the fact that one computation is self-aware is not
dependant on any other observer to decipher it... If with the right
manual I would discover that the computation performed is conscious,
it is a fact that it has been all along even when I didn't know it
was.
Quentin
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Received on Tue Sep 05 2006 - 10:11:52 PDT