On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 11:21 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Actually I still have no clue of what you mean by "information".
Well, I don't think I can say it much better than I did before: In my view, there are ungrounded abstract symbols that acquire meaning via constraints placed on them by their relationships to other symbols. The only "grounding" comes from the conscious experience that is intrinsic to a particular set of relationships. To repeat my earlier Chalmers quote, "Experience is information from the inside; physics is information from the outside." It is this subjective experience of information that provides meaning to the otherwise completely abstract "platonic" symbols. Going a little further: I would say that the relationships between the symbols that make up a particular mental state have some sort of consistency, some regularity, some syntax - so that when these syntactical relationships are combined with the symbols it does make up some sort of descriptive language. A language that is used to describe a state of mind. Here we're well into the realm of semiotics I think. To come back to our disagreement, what is it that a Turing machine does that results in consciousness? It would seem to me that ultimately what a Turing machine does is manipulate symbols according to specific rules. But is it the process of manipulating the symbols that produces consciousness? OR is it the state of the symbols and their relationships with each other AFTER the manipulation which really accounts for consciousness? I say the latter. You seem to be saying the former...or maybe you're saying it's both? As I've mentioned, I think that the symbols which combine to create a mental state can be manipulated in MANY ways. And algorithms just serve as descriptions of these ways. But subjective consciousness is in the states, not in how the states are manipulated. > With different probabilities. That is why we are partially responsible > of our future. This motivates education and learning, and commenting > posts ... In my view, life is just something that we experience. That's it. There's nothing more to life than subjective experience. The feeling of being an active participant, of making decisions, of planning, of choosing, is only that: a feeling. A type of qualia. Okay, it's past my bedtime, I'll do probability tomorrow! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
