On 6/10/2020 7:07 AM, smitra wrote:
I think it can be tested indirectly, because generic computational theories of consciousness imply a multiverse. If my consciousness is the result if a computation then because on the one hand any such computation necessarily involves a vast number of elementary bits and on he other hand whatever I'm conscious of is describable using only a handful of bits, the mapping between computational states and states of consciousness is N to 1 where N is astronomically large. So, the laws of physics we already know about must be effective laws where the statistical effects due to a self-localization uncertainty is already build into it.
That seems to be pulled out of the air. First, some of the laws of physics are not statistical, e.g. those based on symmetries. They are more easily explained as desiderata, i.e. we want our laws of physics to be independent of location and direction and time of day. And N >> conscious information simply says there is a lot of physical reality of which we are not aware. It doesn't say that what we have picked out as laws are statistical, only that they are not complete...which any physicist would admit...and as far as we know they include inherent randomness. To insist that this randomness is statistical is just postulating multiple worlds to avoid randomness.
Bruno has argued on the basis of this to motivate his theory, but this is a generic feature of any theory that assumes computational theory of consciousness. In particular, computational theory of consciousness is incompatible with a single universe theory. So, if you prove that only a single universe exists, then that disproves the computational theory of consciousness.
No, see above.
The details here then involve that computations are not well defined if you refer to a single instant of time, you need to at least appeal to a sequence of states the system over through. Consciousness cannot then be located at a single instant, in violating with our own experience.
I deny that our experience consists of instants without duration or direction. This is an assumption by computationalists made to simply their analysis.
Brent
Therefore either single World theories are false or computational theory of consciousness is false.
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