On 12 June 2014 04:09, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > Of course most physicists think the > mind/body problem is too ill defined a problem to tackle right now.
But this is Bruno's whole point and aim, isn't it? Given that the whole subject area is indeed a quagmire of confusion, he sets out his stall to formulate the problem in a way that is sufficiently well-defined, unambiguous, and mathematically precise to be subjected to rigorous scrutiny. As you know, he originally expected it to break immediately under the resulting strain, but in practice it hasn't yet done so. That said, I think your remarks about primitive matter rather miss the point. The UDA starts with the most general assumption of a computational theory of mind: i.e. the brain is some sort of mechanism and that the relation between consciousness and this mechanism depends on some (unknown) set of computational relations obtaining between some (unknown) finite collection of its physical components. One might then say of this state of affairs that the mechanism itself is "physically instantiated", whereas the resultant conscious states are "computationally instantiated" (aka consciousness "qua computatio"). Step 8 is then intended, on this assumption, to make explicit the (in retrospect, rather obvious) point that any given net physical behaviour of such a mechanism (i.e. the disposition of its components through any given set of physical states) can be fortuitously preserved even after every trace of its original, purportedly "computational", architecture has been evacuated. If this be the case, it would seem to make little sense to continue in the view that any conscious states correlated with the net physical behaviour of the mechanism are still *computationally instantiated*. Consequently, either consciousness qua computatio is false (Maudlin's conclusion), or it is at least persuasive that both conscious states and their correlative physical mechanisms alike depend on "computation" in some rather deeper and more general formulation. This is what opens the conceptual gap for the "reversal" to bite and the UD to exert its baleful influence. It should be clear then, under such assumptions, that neither a conscious state, nor any local physical mechanism through which it is manifested, can any longer be considered basic; rather, *both* must (somehow) be complex artefacts (albeit with distinctive derivations) of a more "primitive" (in this case, by assumption, computational) ontology. The relevant distinction, then, is between this set of relations and the alternative, in which both consciousness and computation are assumed to be derivative on a more basic (hence "primitive") formulation of matter. David -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
