Peter Jones writes:
> > >> Most people would not say "yes doctor" to a process that recorded
> > >> their
> > >> brain on a tape a left it in a filing cabinet. Yet, that is all you
> > >> can
> > >> get out of the timeless world of Plato's heaven (programme vs
> > >> process).
> >
> >
> > Why? Plato's heaven is full of mathematical process, which looks non
> > dynamical from outside, like a block universe, but can be dynamical
> > from inside.
>
> If you can show that subjective experience exists in Platonia,
> you can use that to show that some things will "seem" dynamical.
>
> If you can show that there a dynamic processes in Platonia,
> you can use that to show there are running computations
> and therefore minds, and therefore experiences.
>
> But can you do both without circularity?
That subjective experience exists in Platonia is shown by Maudlin-type
arguments, although admittedly there are several other ways around this
such as rejecting computationalism.
That dynamic processes can occur in the absence of traditional linear time is
less problematic. You haven't come up with a test that would tell me whether
I am living in a properly implemented block universe or a linear universe, and I
think it is impossible in principle to come up with such a test. That does not mean
we are living in a block universe, but it does mean we would not know it if we were.
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Fri Nov 10 2006 - 19:26:16 PST