On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 1:55 AM, Kelly <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Apr 21, 11:31 am, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: >> We could say that a state A access to a state B if there is a >> universal machine (a universal number relation) transforming A into B. >> This works at the ontological level, or for the third person point of >> view. But if A is a consciousness related state, then to evaluate the >> probability of personal access to B, you have to take into account >> *all* computations going from A to B, and thus you have to take into >> account the infinitely many universal number relations transforming A >> into B. Most of them are indiscernible by "you" because they differ >> below "your" substitution level. > > So, going back to some of your other posts about "transmitting" a copy > of a person from Brussels to Moscow. What is it that is transmitted? > Information, right? So for that to be a plausible scenario we have to > say that a person at a particular instant in time can be fully > described by some set of data. > > It would seem to me that their conscious state at that instant must be > recoverable from that set of data. The only question is, what > conditions must be met for them to "experience" this state, which is > completely described by the data set? I don't see any obvious reason > why anything additional is needed. What does computation really add > to this? >
I think I agree with this, that consciousness is created by the information associated with a brain state, however I think two things are missing: The first is that I don't think there is enough information within a single Plank time or other snapshot of the brain to constitute consciousness. As you mention below, under the view of block time, the brain, and all other things are four-dimensional objects. Therefore the total information composing a moment of conscious may be spread across some non-zero segment of time. The second problem is immediately related to the first. Lets assume that there is consciousness within a 10 second time period, so we make a recording of someone's brain states across 10 seconds and store it in some suitable binary file. The question is: Are there any logical connections between successive states when stored in this file? I would think not. When the brain state is embedded in block time, the laws of physics serve as a suitable interpreter which connect the information spread out over four-dimensions, but without computer software running the stored brain state, there is no interpreter for the information when it is just sitting on the disk. I think this is the reason some of us feel a need to have information computed as opposed to it simply existing. 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
