Re: What Computationalism is and what it is *not*

From: Bruno Marchal <marchal.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 17:45:05 +0200

On 06 Sep 2005, at 04:49, Lee Corbin wrote:

> Why, whyever for? Isn't it true that most people don't object to
> their
> *physical* destruction because they realize that they'll continue to
> live on as abstract machines? For sure, those who believe fully in
> the Universal Distribution don't really care if they get hit by a
> truck,
> because after all, their computation will continue anyway---it will
> even
> continue in some other physical universe according to the QTI (Quantum
> Theory of Immortality).


Strictly speaking the hitting by a truck is more frightful for a
computationalist.
Because the question is not "will I survive"? But "will I suffer".
And comp like QM gives evidence that we only survive in normal
worlds, i.e. "non Harry Potter like -universe".
In those normal worlds: you survive the truck but with a high
probability of being wounded.
Making that comp (or even just QM) is everything but wishful thinking.

Bruno



http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
Received on Tue Sep 06 2005 - 11:46:52 PDT

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