I believe that consciousness is, essentially, the way information feels when being processed. Since matter can be arranged to process information in numerous ways of vastly varying complexity, this implies a rich variety of levels and types of consciousness. The particular type of consciousness that we subjectively know is then a phenomenon that arises in certain highly complex physical systems that input, process, store and output information. Clearly, if atoms can be assembled to make humans, the laws of physics also permit the construction of vastly more advanced forms of sentient life. Yet such advanced beings can probably only come about in a two-step process: first intelligent beings evolve through natural selection, then they choose to pass on the torch of life by building more advanced consciousness that can further improve itself.
I suspect that Tegmark is bright enough to have arrived on his own, given cosmology, physical law and a strict adherence to materialism.
What I want to know is how he became motivated to push for a positive Singularity. It seems to me that people who think that a Singularity is possible, or even likely, greatly outnumber people who think they ought to do something about it. (I used to wonder why most people are so apathetic in the face of such danger and opportunity, but maybe a better question is how the few people who are not became that way.)
I suspect that Tegmark is bright enough to have arrived on his own,
given cosmology, physical law and a strict adherence to materialism.
(In terms of how he arrived at a Singularitarian worldview, not how he came to affiliate with the SIAI.)
In his own words (2007):
What I want to know is how he became motivated to push for a positive Singularity. It seems to me that people who think that a Singularity is possible, or even likely, greatly outnumber people who think they ought to do something about it. (I used to wonder why most people are so apathetic in the face of such danger and opportunity, but maybe a better question is how the few people who are not became that way.)