TheOtherDave comments on Three consistent positions for computationalists - Less Wrong

5 Post author: dfranke 14 April 2011 01:15PM

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Comment author: dfranke 15 April 2011 04:38:26PM *  0 points [-]

My conclusion in the Mary's room thought experiment doesn't challenge either of these versions: something new happens when she steps outside, and there's a perfectly good purely physical explanation of what and why. It is nothing more than an artifact of how human brains are built that Mary is unable to make the same physical thing happen, with the same result, without the assistance of either red light or appropriate surgical tools. A slightly more evolved Mary with a few extra neurons leading into her hippocampus would have no such difficulty.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 15 April 2011 05:19:10PM 1 point [-]

Incidentally, while agreeing with your main point, I feel I ought to challenge the implications of "more evolved." This has nothing to do with Mary's position on some scale of evolution; she could be "less evolved" and have those neurons, or "more evolved" and lack them.

Comment author: dfranke 15 April 2011 05:22:26PM 2 points [-]

I should have predicted that somebody here was going to call me on that. I accept the correction.