whpearson comments on Framing Consciousness - Less Wrong

-8 Post author: cousin_it 08 May 2009 10:27AM

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Comment author: whpearson 08 May 2009 12:27:51PM 1 point [-]

Point 2. It's either possible or impossible in principle to implement consciousness on a >Turing-equivalent digital computer.

Justification: obvious corollary of Point 1.

You need the law of the excluded middle as well here. It might be undecidable whether any thing is an implementation of consciousness, from the outside. Due perhaps to the self-referential nature of a consciousness studying consciousness.

Comment author: cousin_it 08 May 2009 12:30:36PM 0 points [-]

My argument doesn't require decidability from the outside, only that the presence of consciousness is a yes/no question from the inside.

Comment author: randallsquared 08 May 2009 01:14:36PM 1 point [-]

Well, it certainly can't be a no question from the inside, at least.

Comment author: cousin_it 08 May 2009 01:31:15PM *  0 points [-]

The whole argument isn't about decidability at all, whether internal or external. And if you consider the existence of subjective experience to be neither true nor false in some cases, you fail Point 1.

Comment author: conchis 08 May 2009 01:59:28PM *  0 points [-]

Point 1 accepts the possibility that consciousness may not be binary, but could instead have degrees. Point 2 fudges this. Point 3 then assumes that it's binary.

Comment author: cousin_it 08 May 2009 02:04:59PM *  0 points [-]

Thanks, you have found a mistake in the post. But it seems minor to me because the whole reasoning from Point 2 on can be applied to a specific degree of consciousness, e.g. the waterline of neurologically intact humans.