On 12/22/2012 1:21 PM, Jason Resch wrote:
On Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 2:57 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
On 12/22/2012 11:36 AM, Jason Resch wrote:
As to how computation might lead to consciousness, I think it helps to
start with a
well-defined definition of consciousness. Take dictionary.com
<http://dictionary.com>'s definition:
"awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc."
Well what is awareness? dictionary.com <http://dictionary.com> defines it
as:
"having knowledge"
dictionary.com <http://dictionary.com>'s simplest non-circular definition of
knowledge is simply "information".
As discussed earlier, you can have information in the Shannon sense, but
that is
just measure over different possible messages. For it to be information
*about*
something, to be knowledge, it has to be grounded in the ability to act.
Right. But how do you define act? I think changing states within the process is
sufficient.
I don't. That leads to the paradox of the conscious rock. The states within only have
meaning by virtue to external actions and perceptions. The whole evolutionary advantage
of having a 'within' is that the brain can project and anticipate (e.g. 'simulate') the
external world as part of its decision process.
Bretn
That is to say, a brain in a vat, an AI in a virtual reality, a person dreaming, etc.
can all be conscious even though they have no externally visible actions. All the
necessary action is internal to the mind itself.
This means that an aware system in the GoL must be able to interact with
it's
environment based on its knowledge.
The Turing machine in the GoL could of course run an emulation of any mind in any
virtual reality. The mind would never know its true incarnation is a vast grid of cells
changing states. It is a little reminiscent of the holographic principal and how it
might apply to ourselves:
"In a larger and more speculative sense, the theory suggests that the entire universe
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe> can be seen as a two-dimensional
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimension> information structure "painted" on the
cosmological horizon
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Particle_horizon>, such that the three
dimensions <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_dimensions> we observe are only an
effective description at macroscopic scales
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroscopic_scale> and at low energies
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-energy_physics>." --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle
Jason
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