Re: [sl4] Re: goals of AI... non physical components of mind != soul

From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Nov 25 2009 - 15:38:30 MST


2009/11/26 Toby Weston <lordlobster@yahoo.com>:
> I think that putative non physical components of mind/consciousness do not
> have to be synonymous with the concept of a soul.
>
> for example:
> We do not understand the mechanism of quantum entanglement or quantum
> decoherence.
> Quantum computers work (may one day work) by exploiting features of quantum
> mechanics.
> Things like entanglement, supersition, decoherence, the quantum Zeno effect
> etc are not physical, but are real.
> It is conceivable that these quantum rules could be treated as primitives
> and combined to produce systems that "do things".
>
> Just as physical levers and pulleys are combined to create physical
> machines.
>
> Complex non physical "information machines" could be created by carefully
> arranging these primitives.

How do you figure that quantum phenomena are "non physical" when they
are the basis of all physics? Also, quantum computers don't actually
do anything that classical computers don't do, such as computing
non-computable functions.

-- 
Stathis Papaioannou


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