This is a physical version of what Bruno has been talking about on this
list.
With "strong AI" I mean that any simulation of a person generates the
mind of that person, and the subjective state of that person is
independent of how that simulation is performed. So, what matters is if
certain computations are performed correctly, not on how those
computations are performed.
While this doesn't seem to have anything to do with quantum mechanics,
the MWI etc., it actually implies the MWI. This follows from the
assumption that whatever subjective experience is generated by the
simulation is independent of the implementation of the physical device
performing the simulation. The time evolution operator defines a mapping
from the past state of the device to the future state. This implies that
the simulation of a person in a certain state is also a scrambled
version of the simulation of that person at some time in the future or
the past. Since by implementation Independence that scrambling should
not affect the subjective experience, one has to conclude that the
consciousness of the person at any time in the future and the past is
also generated by the simulation.
If we start running a simulation at t = 0 s and the simulation is
programmed to shut down at t = 1000 s, then at any time, the running of
the simulation generates the consciousness of the simulated person at
all times between t = 0 and t = 1000. The computer plus the environment
it is in contains all the information about the past and present,
including how the computer was powered on, the simulation was started
and how the simulation will end etc. This then contains all the
information about the person between t = 0 and t = 1000, but not before
or after this time period.
The next step is to consider running a simulation that depends on the
outcome of a spin measurement in the real world. We polarize a spin the
positive x-direction and measure the z-component, feed the result of the
measurement in the simulation and that then affects the simulation, the
simulated person will be made aware of something that is different
depending on the outcome of the measurement.
The moment this experiment has been set up and is ready to go, the time
evolution of the entire system that includes the experimental set up.,
the computer and everything else that is of relevance, is fixed. But
this time evolution will bring the system into a superposition of the
two experimental outcomes of the measurements and its consequences for
the simulation.
It then seems to be a matter of belief in the MWI whether or not one
should believe if both possibilities happen or if only one of them is
going to be real. But if we accept strong AI, then we have to accept
that the physical state of the system before the measurement is
performed, will also generated the consciousness of the person after the
measurement. Because the information present in the physical state
before the measurement contains both branches, it generates the
consciousness of the two versions of the person in both branches.
Finally, one can argue that the conclusion applies to real persons that
are not simulated by computers, because the brain computes us, and in
the above argument it doesn't matter if you use a computer or a
biological brain. In fact one needs to appeal to the entire environment
containing the computer, and to get to a rigorous argument this has to
be taken as large as the size of the lightcone starting from the moment
the simulation starts.
Saibal
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