On Tue, May 12, 2015 at 12:42:06PM +1200, LizR wrote: > On 11 May 2015 at 14:23, Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: > > > On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 01:43:07PM +1200, LizR wrote: > > > > > > How can the environment be different if all the inputs are recorded and > > > replayed? > > > > > > Maybe I've completely missed the point here. > > > > > If the environment cannot be different, then there is nothing for the > > consciousness to be aware of. There is no difference that makes a > > difference (to paraphrase someone else). Brent's intuition (which I > > partially support), is there can be no consciousness under such > > circumstances. > > > > Why isn't the consciousness aware of the recorded inputs? You don't need a > difference that makes a difference when by hypothesis consciousness is a > computation, and replaying the same computation with the same inputs gives > the same results (in this case the same conscious states). A simplified > example (by a factor of a googol or so) is if I put 2+2 into my calculator > twice in a row, and expect it to give the same answer each time. Why should > a conscious computation - starting in the same state, provided with > identical inputs - be expected to be any different? (Assuming physical > supervenience, of course). > > If it isn't any different, then we've accepted the starting assumption of > the MGA, and can proceed to ask whether taking out unused units, > substituting parts of the calculation with cosmic rays or films, etc, > should make any difference. >
Why would we assume that it wouldn't make a difference? That has never been made clear. > > > > In a way, it leads us back to physical supervenience too. If there is a > > difference in the quale, there must be a difference in the environment > > that the quale refers. > > > > How can there be a difference in the quale when we have the same > computation responding to the same input? > If there is no difference in a quale, how can one system be aware of the other? -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- 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 everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
