2008/12/6 Abram Demski <abramdemski.domain.name.hidden>:
>
> Stathis,
>
> I think I can get around your objection by pointing out that the
> structure of counterfactuals is quite different for a recording vs. a
> full human who is wired to be killed if they deviate from a recording.
> Someone could fairly easily disarm the killing device, whereas it
> would be quite difficult to reconstruct the person from the recording
> (in fact there is not enough information to do so).
This seems to be getting away from the simple requirement that the
computer be able to handle counterfactuals. What if the device were
not easy to disarm, but almost impossible to disarm? What if it had
tentacles in every neurone, ready to destroy it if it fired at the
wrong time?
> A related way out would be to point out that all the computational
> machinery is present in one case (merely disabled), whereas it is
> totally absent in the other case.
So you agree that in the case where the extra machinery is waiting to
be dropped into place, consciousness results?
--
Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Fri Dec 05 2008 - 19:58:27 PST