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Cyan comments on Friendly AI and the limits of computational epistemology - Less Wrong Discussion

18 Post author: Mitchell_Porter 08 August 2012 01:16PM

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Comment author: Cyan 11 August 2012 04:38:39PM 0 points [-]

this is like looking for an evolutionary explanation of why magnetite can become magnetized... the alleged quantum locus... [is] conscious because of some anthropically necessitated ontological traits of our universe, not because of its useful functions

I think you have mistaken the thrust of my questions. I'm not asking for an evolutionary explanation of consciousness per se -- I'm trying to take your view as given and figure out what useful functions one ought to expect to be associated with the locus of consciousness.

Comment author: Mitchell_Porter 11 August 2012 04:47:22PM 0 points [-]

What does conscious cognition do that unconscious cognition doesn't do? The answer to that tells you what consciousness is doing (though not whether these activities are useful...).