On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 9:21 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 19 May 2015 at 11:02, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I think you're not taking into account the level of the functional > > substitution. Of course functionally equivalent silicon and functionally > > equivalent neurons can (under functionalism) both instantiate the same > > consciousness. But a calculator computing 2+3 cannot substitute for a > human > > brain computing 2+3 and produce the same consciousness. > > In a gradual replacement the substitution must obviously be at a level > sufficient to maintain the function of the whole brain. Sticking a > calculator in it won't work. > > > Do you think a "Blockhead" that was functionally equivalent to you (it > could > > fool all your friends and family in a Turing test scenario into thinking > it > > was intact you) would be conscious in the same way as you? > > Not necessarily, just as an actor may not be conscious in the same way > as me. But I suspect the Blockhead would be conscious; the intuition > that a lookup table can't be conscious is like the intuition that an > electric circuit can't be conscious. > > I don't see an equivalency between those intuitions. A lookup table has a bounded and very low degree of computational complexity: all answers to all queries are answered in constant time. While the table itself may have an arbitrarily high information content, what in the software of the lookup table program is there to appreciate/understand/know that information? Jason -- 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.
