From: Eric Rauch (erauch@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Aug 19 2007 - 16:45:10 MDT
On 8/19/07, Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Aug 19, 2007, at 2:11 PM, Matt Mahoney wrote:
> > Consciousness is very hard to
> > define rigorously, but everyone knows what it is. It is what
> > distinguishes
> > this universe from a hypothetical atom-for-atom identical universe
> > that exists
> > beyond the awareness of any person, including your copy that lives
> > your life,
> > following its neurally programmed instructions, deterministically
> > making the
> > exact same sequence of decisions that you make.
>
> Ah, like a substance which is chemically water, with the
> same atoms in the same positions as water, but which is
> not wet at 30C?
EXACTLY! Water that lacks the imutable quality of wetness, a quality with
no physical basis that can only be seen in isolation in the spirit world.
Dualism aside though people can see why even in a purely physical world
uploading would fail to preserve one's subjective existance right? I won't
go into a drawn out proof here because I'm sure that the issue has been
beaten to death in now archived messages.
-- > Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com> > "This is a fascinating question, right up there with whether rocks > fall because of gravity or being dropped, and whether 3+5=5+3 > because addition is commutative or because they both equal 8." > - Scott Aaronson > > >
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