> On 19 Jun 2021, at 13:17, smitra <[email protected]> wrote: > > Information is the key. Conscious agents are defined by precisely that > information that specifies the content of their consciousness. This means > that a conscious agent can never be precisely located in some physical > object, because the information that describes the conscious experience will > always be less detailed than the information present in the exact physical > description of an object such a brain. There are always going to be a very > large self localization ambiguity due to the large number of different > possible brain states that would generate exactly the same conscious > experience. So, given whatever conscious experience the agent has, the agent > could be in a very large number of physically distinct states. > > The simpler the brain and the algorithm implemented by the brain, the larger > this self-localization ambiguity becomes because smaller algorithms contain > less detailed information. Our conscious experiences localizes us very > precisely on an Earth-like planet in a solar system that is very similar to > the one we think we live in. But the fly walking on the wall of the room I'm > in right now may have some conscious experience that is exactly identical to > that of another fly walking on the wall of another house in another country > 600 years ago or on some rock in a cave 35 million year ago. > > The conscious experience of the fly I see on the all is therefore not located > in the particular fly I'm observing. This is i.m.o. the key thing you get > from identifying consciousness with information, it makes the multiverse an > essential ingredient of consciousness. This resolves paradoxes you get in > thought experiments where you consider simulating a brain in a virtual world > and then argue that since the simulation is deterministic, you could replace > the actual computer doing the computations by a device playing a recording of > the physical brain states. This argument breaks down if you take into account > the self-localization ambiguity and consider that this multiverse aspect is > an essential part of consciousness due to counterfactuals necessary to define > the algorithm being realized, which is impossible in a deterministic > single-world setting.
OK. Not only true, but it makes physics into a branch of mathematical logic, partially embedded in arithmetic (and totally embedded in the semantic of arithmetic, which of course cannot be purely arithmetical, as the machine understand already). I got the many-dreams, or many histories of the physical reality from the many computations in arithmetic well before I discovered Everett. Until that moment I was still thinking that QM was a threat on Mechanism, but of course it is only the wave collapse postulate which is contradictory with Mechanism. We cannot make a computation disappear like we cannot make a number disappear… Bruno > > Saibal > > > On 18-06-2021 20:46, Jason Resch wrote: >> In your opinion who has offered the best theory of consciousness to >> date, or who do you agree with most? Would you say you agree with them >> wholeheartedly or do you find points if disagreement? >> I am seeing several related thoughts commonly expressed, but not sure >> which one or which combination is right. For example: >> Hofstadter/Marchal: self-reference is key >> Tononi/Tegmark: information is key >> Dennett/Chalmers: function is key >> To me all seem potentially valid, and perhaps all three are needed in >> some combination. I'm curious to hear what other viewpoints exist or >> if there are other candidates for the "secret sauce" behind >> consciousness I might have missed. >> 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 view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUik%3Du724L6JxAKi0gq-rPfV%3DXwGd7nS2kmZ_znLd7MT1g%40mail.gmail.com >> [1]. >> Links: >> ------ >> [1] >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CA%2BBCJUik%3Du724L6JxAKi0gq-rPfV%3DXwGd7nS2kmZ_znLd7MT1g%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer > > -- > 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 view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/bd53588153f2debae241dbb41e48b60a%40zonnet.nl. -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/FB25EE4D-6325-49D5-B85F-E862D9E9A2BD%40ulb.ac.be.
