Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > 2009/1/13 Brent Meeker <meeke...@dslextreme.com>: > > >> In human consciousness, as instantiated by brains, there is a process in >> which >> signal/information is not local, it is distributed in spacetime and is >> connected >> causally which means, per relativity, that you cannot make any unique >> spacelike >> snapshot and label it "the state". I don't go so far as to claim that >> consciousness *must be* instantiated in this way, but I think there must be >> something that makes the "states" part of a process - not just snapshots. >> Bruno >> gets around the problem of defining states by assuming a digital Turing like >> process, but then he has to provide something besides spacetime to make the >> set >> of states a sequence; which is he does by invoking the requirement that they >> be >> a computation. I have some doubts as to whether this is enough, but at >> least it >> is something. >> > > It comes down to whether the brain is Turing emulable. If it is, then > I see no problem describing it in terms of a sequence of discrete > states. The question then arises whether the causal links between the > states in an intact digital computer are necessary to give rise to > consciousness, which is what I thought you were claiming, or whether > the same states in disconnected fashion would achieve the same thing. > Opponents of computationalism such as John Searle have argued that if > a Turing machine can give rise to consciousness then the disconnected > states would also have to give rise to consciousness, which is then > taken as a reductio against computationalism. However a Turing machine is not just a set of states, it also requires a set of transition rules. So in the same abstract way that the integers are ordered by "succession" the computational states of a Turing machine are ordered. Whether just abstract rules, without implementation, are sufficient isn't clear to me.
Brent > The alternative way, > saving computationalism, is, I think, Bruno's: it isn't the physical > states giving rise to consciousness, but the computation as Platonic > object. > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-l...@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
