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

[Bruno Marchal]

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/