lukeprog comments on David Chalmers' "The Singularity: A Philosophical Analysis" - Less Wrong

33 Post author: lukeprog 29 January 2011 02:52AM

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Comment author: lukeprog 29 January 2011 04:14:41PM *  10 points [-]

Philosophers are used to the fact that they have major disagreements with each other. Even if you think zombie arguments fail, as I do, you'll still perk up your ears when somebody as smart as Chalmers is taking the singularity seriously. I don't accept his version of property dualism, but The Conscious Mind was not written by a dummy.

Comment author: CarlShulman 29 January 2011 06:54:17PM *  3 points [-]

I didn't mean to say that Chalmers isn't a highly respected philosopher, but I also think it's true that the impact is somewhat blunted relative to a counterfactual in which his philosophy of mind work was of equal fame and quality, but arguing a different position.

Comment author: torekp 30 January 2011 08:29:48PM 0 points [-]

I disagree; the fact that Chalmers is critical of standard varieties of physicalism will make him more credible on the Singularity. In the former case, he rejects the nerd-core view. That makes him a little harder to write off.