SilasBarta comments on Dennett's "Consciousness Explained": Prelude - Less Wrong

12 Post author: PhilGoetz 10 January 2010 07:31AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (97)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: SilasBarta 10 January 2010 08:34:16PM 12 points [-]

Dennett states, without presenting a single number, that the bandwidth needs for reproducing our sensory experience would be so great that it is impossible (his actual word); and that this proves that we are not brains in vats.

Maybe I was being too generous when I read this chapter, but I don't think that's what Dennett was saying. He was saying that in order for a brain-in-a-vat to work, the operator would have to anticipate every possible observation you could make, resulting in a combinatorial explosion that could not be handled by anything simpler than the universe itself.

That ties in with his next point (that you mention) about hallucinations, and how they persist only until you make an observation that the hallucination-generator can't fake.

It wasn't about bandwidth (rate of information transfer) at all. But perhaps I should re-read it.

Comment author: thomblake 11 January 2010 05:40:08PM 3 points [-]

I agree with your reading of Dennett.

Comment author: Tyrrell_McAllister 10 January 2010 11:16:07PM 3 points [-]

I just took a look at the prelude. I think that your interpretation is right. However, Dennett does use the word "bandwidth", which might not have been the best choice. I can see why it would lead a reader to think that Dennett was talking about channel capacity.

Comment author: Peterdjones 23 September 2012 03:16:33PM *  0 points [-]

Assuming the simulation is runnign in our universe. However, the Simulators could be fooling the Brains aout the size of the universe. Maybe what the Brains think the universe is, is a tiny corner of theirs. Equally, they could be fooling the Brains about the capactities of computers, even the fundamental of computer science.

See, scepticism is a Universal Solvent [*]. Once you accept it all bets are off.

[*] D. C.Dennett.