On 3/26/2018 10:10 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
You retreat into what is possible. My question is much more directly
pragmatic. If I actually made a silicon based replacement for your
brain that had the same input/output would you consciousness be
different if the replacement processed the information
differently...and how could you or we know?
Not necessarily, unless you mean all my possible behaviour, including
the infinite one. For a finite time, a zombie might be able to
imitated me, or some of my behaviour enough well to fail people.
The level of substitution is more precise than “behaviour”, as what is
maintained is the behaviour of the relevant entities at some level,
this might includes all the internal inputs and outputs of all
particular neurons. I think I have already said that I tend to think
that the substation level is the particles/waves up to the Heisenberg
uncertainty.
The problem with that level of substitution is that the wave-function of
the brain (or even of one neuron) is an extreme idealization. The brain
(or neuron) as a quantum system not isolated and will be entangled with
a lot of the environment, including that outside the body. The is no
such thing as "the wave-function of a brain".
But I raised the question precisely because of this extreme disconnect
between discussions of the "level of substitution" and the
"consciousness as detected by behavior".
Brent
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