You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Cyan comments on Eight questions for computationalists - Less Wrong Discussion

16 Post author: dfranke 13 April 2011 12:46PM

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

Comments (87)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Cyan 13 April 2011 01:55:14PM *  1 point [-]

My own answers, before reading anyone else's, were:

  1. (b)
  2. The calculator processes information. In the same system that gives the interpretation of inputs and outputs as rational numbers, the information processing of the calculator can be seen to be isomorphic to addition.
  3. I can make many senses of the phrase, depending on the context in which it is used. Here's one: light with wavelength around 650 nm was reflected off the petals and entered the two-year-old's eyes; electrochemical signal processing occurred in her brain such that she reported, "The rose is red!".
  4. I originally answered algorithms, but I find RobinZ's answer persuasive.
  5. I don't know, but I doubt it. I expect consciousness has something to do with self-reflection, and Gödel showed that self-reflection is pervasive even if you don't build it in explicitly at the start.
  6. I don't know, but I doubt it.
  7. Only certain kinds.