On 3/31/2015 6:57 PM, LizR wrote:
Russell,
I think your argument would be stronger if you said that playing a movie through a
projector is still a computation, albeit a simple one. Obviously playing a movie in a
media player on a computer involves computation, but I can't see how that's relevant to
the MGA - a media player clearly isn't necessary to play all types of movie, so as it
stands you've left a loophole (IMHO).
Also, I can't see how the "block multiverse" comment is relevant. Movement is well
defined in a block universe (or multiiverse). Assuming change is required for a
computation to be carried out, the only question is whether movement exists from the
point of view of creatures living inside the universe in question - which, clearly, it
does.
That's why I think Bruno's argument is right, but not so radical. I think it only proves
that consciousness will exist in the context of the physics in which the computation
exists. If it is a played back recording then the consciousness will exist relative to
the physics that is also part of the recording. So when Tarzan swings thru the jungle in
the movie there can only be consciousness of the images of vines and trees because those
images are all the context that was captured with the images of Tarzan. This is a
rudimentary consciousness because it isn't counterfactually correct - it's not even
counterfactually defined.
Hence being embedded in a block universe won't stop a computation happening, as a
sequence of states strung out along the time axis, just as it doesn't prevent a car from
moving just because the car can be described as a worldline from a "god's eye" perspective.
That's Russell's point - consciousness exists in the block universe even though, viewed as
a block, it is like a recording.
Brent
--
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.
