You need that to recognize, and draw a line around the category “gliders”. To exhibit gliders you don’t. The analogous thing with physics and minds is that we don’t need to add anything to physics to get minds, but we need a heavy theory of “minds as implemented in neurons as implemented on biology as implemented on chemistry as implemented on physics” to usefully talk about them.
You need that to recognize, and draw a line around the category “gliders”. To exhibit gliders you don’t.
What’s the difference?
(Obviously, you could have a simpler ruleset which failed to recognize all gliders/minds. But then you would be moving away from “Emergence!” and towards a simpler theory of “recognized instances”.)
It is perfectly possible for a Conway’s-Life universe to contain a glider without containing anything that can identify a glider, either within it or within its fundamental physics (i.e. source code). Despite this, if the pattern
XX
X X
X
should appear in the grid on one particular generation, if no other live cells intrude, the pattern will appear again one square northwest from before four generations later.
Likewise, a tree falling in the forest with noone around will create acoustic vibrations, even if it creates no auditory experience.
You need that to recognize, and draw a line around the category “gliders”. To exhibit gliders you don’t. The analogous thing with physics and minds is that we don’t need to add anything to physics to get minds, but we need a heavy theory of “minds as implemented in neurons as implemented on biology as implemented on chemistry as implemented on physics” to usefully talk about them.
What’s the difference?
(Obviously, you could have a simpler ruleset which failed to recognize all gliders/minds. But then you would be moving away from “Emergence!” and towards a simpler theory of “recognized instances”.)
Remove the complicated glider-recognition algorithm and the things it’s designed to recognize will still be there.
But you will be unable to exhibit them without adding the algorithm right back. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
It is perfectly possible for a Conway’s-Life universe to contain a glider without containing anything that can identify a glider, either within it or within its fundamental physics (i.e. source code). Despite this, if the pattern
should appear in the grid on one particular generation, if no other live cells intrude, the pattern will appear again one square northwest from before four generations later.
Likewise, a tree falling in the forest with noone around will create acoustic vibrations, even if it creates no auditory experience.