Peter Jones writes: > Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > > > > > Now, suppose some more complex variant of 3+2=3 implemented on your > > > > abacus has consciousness associated with it, which is just one of the > > > > tenets of computationalism. Some time later, you are walking in the > > > > Amazon rain forest and notice that > > > > ****under a certain mapping**** > > > > > > > > > > of birds to beads and trees to wires, the forest is implementing the > > > > same computation as your abacus was. So if your abacus was conscious, > > > > and computationalism is true, the tree-bird sytem should also be > > > > conscious. > > > > > > No necessarily, because the mapping is required too. Why should > > > it still be conscious if no-one is around to make the mapping. > > > > Are you claiming that a conscious machine stops being conscious if its > > designers die > > and all the information about how it works is lost? > > You are, if anyone is. I don't agree that computation *must* be > interpreted, > although they *can* be re-interpreted.
What I claim is this: A computation does not *need* to be interpreted, it just is. However, a computation does need to be interpreted, or interact with its environment in some way, if it is to be interesting or meaningful. By analogy, a string of characters is a string of characters whether or not anyone interprets it, but it is not interesting or meaningful unless it is interpreted. But if a computation, or for that matter a string of characters, is conscious, then it is interesting and meaningful in at least one sense in the absence of an external observer: it is interesting and meaningful to itself. If it were not, then it wouldn't be conscious. The conscious things in the world have an internal life, a first person phenomenal experience, a certain ineffable something, whatever you want to call it, while the unconscious things do not. That is the difference between them. Stathis Papaioannou _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
