Bruno, Stathis,
Thank you Stathis for the summary. I do have the paper now and I will
read it carefully. Based on Sathis summary I still believe that Maudlin
is fallacious. A computer program equivalent to Maudlin's construction
can be written as:
IF (Input = -27098217872180483080234850309823740127)
THEN (Output = 78972398473024802348523948518347109)
ELSE Call Conscious_Subroutine
ENDIF.
If the input 27098217872180483080234850309823740127 is always given then
the ELSE clause is never invoked. The point is that to write the above
piece of code, Maudlin must go through the trouble of calculating
perhaps on his hand calculator the answer
78972398473024802348523948518347109 that the Conscious_Subroutine would
have produced had it been called. (Notice the conditional tense
indicating the counterfactual). He then inserts the answer in the IF
clause at programming time. In so doing he must instantiate in his own
mind and/or calculator the function of the Conscious_Subroutine for the
particular case in which input = 27098217872180483080234850309823740127,
If the single numeral input is replaced by a function with multiple
numerical inputs, Maudlin trick could be expanded by using tables to
store the output and instead of using an IF statement, Maudlin could use
a CASE statement. But then, Maudlin would have to fill up the whole
table with the answers that the Conscious_Subroutine would have
produced. In the ultimate case you could conceive of a huge table that
contains all the answers that the Conscious_Subroutine would ever answer
to any question. This table however must be filled up. In the process of
filling up the table you must instantiate all state of consciousness of
the Conscious_Subroutine.
Bruno, says:
BTW I thought you did understand the physics/psychology
(theology/computer-science/number-theory) reversal. What makes you
changing your mind? (just interested).
I did not change my mind. I just believe that Maudlin's reasoning is faulty.
By calculating the output Maudlin inserts himself and possibly his
calculator in the conscious process. To understand the insertion of
Maudlin into the consciousness of The Conscious_Subroutine, you must
agree that this consciousness is independent of time, space, substrate
and level. This Maybe is the Moral of Maudlin's Machinations...mmmm?
George
Bruno Marchal wrote:
>
>
> Le 03-oct.-06, à 21:33, George Levy a écrit :
>
> Bruno,
>
> I looked on the web but could not find Maudlin's paper.
>
>
>
> Mmh... for those working in an institution affiliated to JSTOR, it is
> available here:
> http://www.jstor.org/view/0022362x/di973301/97p04115/0
>
> I will search if some free version are available elsewhere, or put a
> pdf-version on my web page.
>
>
>
>
>
> So I just go by what you are saying.
>
> I still stand by the spirit of what I said but I admit to be
> misleading in stating that Maudlin himself is part of the machine.
> It is not Maudlin, but Maudlin's proxy or demon, the Klaras which
> is now parts of the machine. Maudlin used the same trick that
> Maxwell used. He used a the demon or proxy to perform his (dirty)
> work.
>
> It seems to me that if you trace the information flow you probably
> can detect that Maudlin is cheating: How are the protoolympia and
> the Klaras defined?
>
>
>
> Maudlin is cheating ? No more than a doctor who build an artificial
> brain by copying an original at some level. Remember we *assume* the
> comp hypothesis.
>
>
>
>
> To design his protoolympia and the Klaras he must start with the
> information about the machine and the task PI. If he changes task
> from PI to PIprime than he has to apply a different protoolympia
> and different Klaras, and he has to intervene in the process!
>
>
> Yes but only once. Changing PI to PIprime would be another thought
> experiment. I don't see the relevance.
> I know you got the paper now. It will help in this debate.
>
>
>
> Maudlin's argument is far from convincing.
>
>
> BTW I thought you did understand the physics/psychology
> (theology/computer-science/number-theory) reversal. What makes you
> changing your mind? (just interested).
>
> Bruno
>
> http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
>
>
>
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Received on Wed Oct 04 2006 - 14:27:44 PDT