On 28 Jan 2005 Brent Meeker wrote:
>I'm not sure I understand the computational hyposthesis - and I certainly
>don't
>*believe* it.
So you don't believe that even in principle a digital computer can be
conscious? I think the challenge to this is going to come not from
theoretical considerations, but from practical developments in AI in the
coming decades. There will come a point where to insist that a computer is
not conscious will be no more plausible than insisting you alone are
conscious.
> >(1) This sequence of binary digits has a special organisation, which can
>be
> >understood as conforming to certain rules and relationships in a
>particular
> >programming language;
> >
> >(2) Implementing the binary sequence on a digital computer results in a
> >simulated world with inhabitants who are self-aware.
> >
> >You can stipulate that (1) must be true for (2) to be true, but it does
>not
> >thereby follow that any conscious being in the physical world must be
>able
> >to understand the details of (1) in order for (2) to be true.
>
>Sure.
>
> >For example,
> >suppose the computer language were devised by a long extinct
>civilization,
> >and no-one alive now is able to understand it: should that make any
> >difference to the simulation "from inside"?
>
>A good question. Another is, given any bitstring and a certain world, is
>there
>a language in which that bitstring simulates that world?
Yes. This is the basic idea I am getting at. I don't see any way around it.
>Similarly, if the entire
> >computation occurs by chance in the course of another computation - a
> >spreadsheet, a cryptography cracking program on the planet Zork,
>distributed
> >throughout a computer network in tiny pieces as in the Egan story - how
>can
> >the conscious beings "inside" possibly know this?
>
>This would seem to be contrary to (1) supra - the tiny pieces not longer
>have
>"a special organisation".
No: they always have a special organisation, given the appropriate language,
as per your point above.
--Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Thu Jan 27 2005 - 22:47:05 PST