Of course not the value! But according to you, some physical law must exist that says aah, here’s a simulation of this particular Turing machine, so the beings inside it are now conscious. How might this law do its work? Does it look at me intently as I sit there rewriting stacks of ones and zeroes in the candlelight, running a simulation unbeknownst to myself?
At this point I can’t make up my mind whether something ought to “click” for me or for you.
Of course not the value! But according to you, some physical law must exist that says aah, here’s a simulation of this particular Turing machine, so the beings inside it are now conscious.
I never said that. But if insist, I can think of at least one such law which would have that consequence: a number cannot constitute consciousness unless something in the universe exists which uniquely specifies that number. According to this rule, writing down complete the state of a conscious Turing machine would make it exist, but writing the words “a conscious Turing machine” or “the set of all integers” would not.
What counts as “something in the universe that uniquely specifies a number”? I take it a particle’s coordinate written out in inches in trinary doesn’t count (why?), even if the universe is continuous. But the contents of a PC’s memory—if Nature assumes a certain voltage means 1 and another means 0 - do count for some reason. Okaaay, let’s pick a border case: a computer calculating successive digits of pi. Will it make every possible world with its conscious inhabitants suddenly spring into subjective life if we wait long enough? Should a span of digits count if it specifies a world when inverted? What if its square specifies a world? How about an off-by-one error? We could go on.
Those aren’t just nitpicks; most any rule you can think up is going to have the same problems. I confess to seeing no logical way out except to say that all “abstract” concepts like numbers or algorithms must be either equally real or equally unreal for purposes of creating “real” things like subjective experience.
Of course not the value! But according to you, some physical law must exist that says aah, here’s a simulation of this particular Turing machine, so the beings inside it are now conscious. How might this law do its work? Does it look at me intently as I sit there rewriting stacks of ones and zeroes in the candlelight, running a simulation unbeknownst to myself?
At this point I can’t make up my mind whether something ought to “click” for me or for you.
I never said that. But if insist, I can think of at least one such law which would have that consequence: a number cannot constitute consciousness unless something in the universe exists which uniquely specifies that number. According to this rule, writing down complete the state of a conscious Turing machine would make it exist, but writing the words “a conscious Turing machine” or “the set of all integers” would not.
Gotcha.
What counts as “something in the universe that uniquely specifies a number”? I take it a particle’s coordinate written out in inches in trinary doesn’t count (why?), even if the universe is continuous. But the contents of a PC’s memory—if Nature assumes a certain voltage means 1 and another means 0 - do count for some reason. Okaaay, let’s pick a border case: a computer calculating successive digits of pi. Will it make every possible world with its conscious inhabitants suddenly spring into subjective life if we wait long enough? Should a span of digits count if it specifies a world when inverted? What if its square specifies a world? How about an off-by-one error? We could go on.
Those aren’t just nitpicks; most any rule you can think up is going to have the same problems. I confess to seeing no logical way out except to say that all “abstract” concepts like numbers or algorithms must be either equally real or equally unreal for purposes of creating “real” things like subjective experience.