On 10 May 2014 23:30, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 10 May 2014 20:12, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Sat, May 10, 2014 at 8:30 AM, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> On 10 May 2014 17:30, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> On Saturday, May 10, 2014, LizR <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>>> I guess one could start from "is physics computable?" (As Max Tegmark >>>>> discusses in his book, but I haven't yet read what his conclusions are, if >>>>> any). If physics is computable and consciousness arises somehow in a >>>>> "materialist-type way" from the operation of the brain, then consciousness >>>>> will be computable by definition. >>>>> >>>> >>>> Is that trivially obvious to you? The anti-comp crowd claim that even >>>> if brain behaviour is computable that does not mean that a computer >>>> could be conscious, since it may require the actual brain matter, and not >>>> just a simulation, to generate the consciousness. >>>> >>>> If physics is computable, and consciousness arises from physics with >>> nothing extra (supernatural or whatever) then yes. Am I missing something >>> obvious? >>> >> > You're missing the step where you explain how doing the computations > generates consciousness. That is what I understand "consciousness is > computable" to mean. > My point is that I don't need to. If physics is computable and *if*consciousness arises from physics, consciousness *must* be computable (even if it's only computable at the level of the fundamental particles and hence a somewhat long computation). The point of my argument was to side-step worrying about exactly how consciousness is computable. It may be a lot easier to dsicover is fundamental physics is. Now where's my platonist hat got to? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
