Kory Heath wrote: > On Nov 15, 2008, at 5:12 AM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > >> But if any computation can be mapped onto any physical state, then >> every computation can be mapped onto one physical state; and why not >> the null state? >> I'm not sure that works. In the original idea the mapping was to be one-to-one (which is possible since a stone or other physical object has many microscopic states). If the mapping is something like:
computation-state1---map1---->physical-state0 computation-state2---map2---->physical-state0 computation-state3---map3---->physical-state0 ... then the inverse mapping, physical-state0---1map--->computation-state1 physical-state0---2map--->computation-state2 physical-state0---3map--->computation-state3 ... has to implicitly provide it's own order. So for the physical-state0 to implement the computation there would have to be another index variable, like time, to order the inverse mapping. Then it would really be physical-state0@ t=1---1map--->computation-state1 physical-state0@ t=2---2map--->computation-state2 physical-state0@ t=3---3map--->computation-state3 ... Right? Brent. > > I guess I don't really have a clear picture of why the fact that any > computation can be mapped onto a physical state should lead to the > belief that (say) those mappings somehow support consciousnesses. I'm > not very comfortable with the idea that a stone implements all > computations. It may in fact be the case that those views are > functionally equivalent to my suggestion that mathematical facts of > the matter play the role that physical existence is supposed to play > for the materialist, but I'm sticking with the latter formulation, > because that's the one I actually understand. > > -- Kory > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
