Jason Resch wrote: > > > On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 8:52 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <[EMAIL PROTECTED] > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: > > > 2008/11/23 Kory Heath <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>: > > > If we apply the Conway's Life rule to all the cells, it seems > like the > > creatures in the grid ought to be conscious. If we don't apply the > > Life rule to any of the cells, but just pull the data from our > > previously-created lookup table, it seems like the creatures in the > > grid are not conscious. But if we apply the Life rule to half of the > > cells and pull the other half from the lookup table, there will > > (probably) be some creature in the grid who has half of the cells in > > its brain being computed by the Life rule, and half being pulled from > > the lookup table. What's the status of this creature's consciousness? > > Which leads again to the problem of partial zombies. What is your > objection to saying that the looked up computation is also conscious? > How would that be inconsistent with observation, or lead to logical > contradiction? > > > I would side with Kory that a looked up recording of conscious activity > is not conscious. My argument being that static information has no > implicit meaning because there are an infinite number of ways a bit > string can be interpreted. However in a running program the values of > the bits do have implicit meaning according to the rules of the state > machine.
But this static information is produced by a dynamic computation - so it can be regarded as deriving its meaning from that computation. I don't see why that implicit meaning shouldn't count. Brent > > What makes this weird is that in one respect our universe might be > considered a 4-d recording, containing a record of computations > performed by neurons and brains across one of its dimensions. Perhaps > this is further evidence in support of Bruno's theory: mind cannot exist > in a physical universe because it is just a recording of a computation, > and only the actual computation itself can create consciousness. > > Jason --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
