On Sun, Aug 07, 2005 at 11:35:42PM -0700, "Hal Finney" wrote:
> Russell Standish writes:
> > The take home message I get from Maudlin's experiment is that a
> > computationalist consciousness is supervenient on a physical process
> > _spread_ over the multiverse, ie the counterfactuals must really exist
> > as alternate branches of the Multiverse.
>
> So what does that tell you about Olympia? Is she conscious or not,
> by this criterion?
Not Olympia, nor Olympia + Klara with Klara blocked an immobile. Only
Olympia and Klara without the blocks is conscious.
> I guess that you would say that if the unused
> counterfactual machinery would actually work if tested, then she is
> conscious; but if the counterfactual machines were broken or blocked
> such that they wouldn't work (even though they are not used) then she
> is unconscious. And perhaps you can say that the machines are in fact
> tested in other branches of the multiverse, so the criterion is more
> than merely a hypothetical difference between unused working machines
> and unused broken machines. I see some difficulties with this position
> but I better first hear whether this is what you have in mind before
> trying to extrapolate further.
>
That is indeed my meaning. What difficulties do you see?
Cheers
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Received on Mon Aug 08 2005 - 06:54:12 PDT