My answer is that this is nothing like a GLUT any more. We are postulating a process of construction which is functionally the same as hooking me up to a source of quantum noise, and recording all of my Everett branches subsequent to that point. The so-called GLUT is the holographic sum of all these branches. The look-up consists of finding the branch which looks like a given input.
What this GLUT in fact looks like is simply the universe as conceived of under the relative state interpretation of QM. (Whether the relative state interpretation is correct or not is immaterial.) So how, exactly, are we supposed to “look inside” the GLUT and realize that it is “obviously” not conscious but just a big jukebox?
After having followed the line of reasoning that led us here, “looking inside” the GLUT has precisely the same informational structure as “looking inside” the relative-state universe (not as we do, confined to one particular Everett branch, but as would entities “outside” our universe, assuming for instance that we lived in a simulation).
The GLUT, assuming this process of construction, looks precisely like a timeless universe. And we have no reason to doubt that the minds inhabiting this universe are not conscious, and every reason to suppose that they are conscious.
So how, exactly, are we supposed to “look inside” the GLUT and realize that it is “obviously” not conscious but just a big jukebox?
You can look at the substrate of the GLUT. This is actually an excellent objection to computationalism, since an algorithm can be memoized to various degrees, a simulation can be more or less strict, etc. so there’s no sharp difference in character between a GLUT and a simulation of the physical universe.
And claiming that the GLUT is conscious suffers from a particularly sharp version of the conscious-rock argument. Encrypt the GLUT with a random one-time pad, and neither the resulting data nor the key will be conscious; but you can plug both into a decrypter and consciousness is restored. This makes very little sense.
I was anticipating precisely this objection.
My answer is that this is nothing like a GLUT any more. We are postulating a process of construction which is functionally the same as hooking me up to a source of quantum noise, and recording all of my Everett branches subsequent to that point. The so-called GLUT is the holographic sum of all these branches. The look-up consists of finding the branch which looks like a given input.
What this GLUT in fact looks like is simply the universe as conceived of under the relative state interpretation of QM. (Whether the relative state interpretation is correct or not is immaterial.) So how, exactly, are we supposed to “look inside” the GLUT and realize that it is “obviously” not conscious but just a big jukebox?
After having followed the line of reasoning that led us here, “looking inside” the GLUT has precisely the same informational structure as “looking inside” the relative-state universe (not as we do, confined to one particular Everett branch, but as would entities “outside” our universe, assuming for instance that we lived in a simulation).
The GLUT, assuming this process of construction, looks precisely like a timeless universe. And we have no reason to doubt that the minds inhabiting this universe are not conscious, and every reason to suppose that they are conscious.
You can look at the substrate of the GLUT. This is actually an excellent objection to computationalism, since an algorithm can be memoized to various degrees, a simulation can be more or less strict, etc. so there’s no sharp difference in character between a GLUT and a simulation of the physical universe.
And claiming that the GLUT is conscious suffers from a particularly sharp version of the conscious-rock argument. Encrypt the GLUT with a random one-time pad, and neither the resulting data nor the key will be conscious; but you can plug both into a decrypter and consciousness is restored. This makes very little sense.