On 7 March 2014 15:46, Craig Weinberg <whatsons...@gmail.com> wrote: > If the doctor became more ambitious, and decided to replace a species with > a simulation, we have a ready example of what it might be like. Cars have > replaced the functionality of horses in human society. They reproduce in a > different, more centralized way, but otherwise they move around like > horses, carry people and their possessions like horses, they even evolve > into new styles over time. > > Notice, however, that despite our occasional use of a name like Pinto or > Mustang, no horse-like properties have emerged from cars. They do not > whinny or swat flies. They do not get spooked and send their drivers > careening off of the road. They did not develop DNA. Certainly a car does > not perform as many complex computations as a horse, but neither does it > need to. The function of a horse really doesn't need to be very > complicated. A Google self-driving car is a better horse for almost all > practical purposes than a horse. > > Maybe the doctor can replace all species with a functional equivalent? We > could even do without all of the moving around and just keep the cars in > the factory in which they are built and include a simulation screen on each > windshield that interacts with Google Maps. With a powerful enough > artificial intelligence, why not replace function altogether? > > I don't think you understand the essential idea of functionalism, which is multiple realisability. You try to think of analogies to show that it's not obvious, but we know it's not obvious. However, it's true. You don't address the arguments showing it to be true. It's like focussing on how we would fall off the earth if it were round but failing to explain the photos from space.
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