“if one might make a conscious being out of Silicon but not out of a Turing machine”
I also doubt that btw.
“what happens when you run the laws of physics on a Turing machine and have simulated humans arise”
Is physics computable? That’s an open question.
And more importantly, there’s no guarantee that the laws of physics would necessarily generate conscious beings.
Even if it did, could be p-zombies.
“What do you mean by “certainly exists”? One sure could subject someone to an illusion that he is not being subjected to an illusion.”
True. But as long as you have someone, it’s no longer an illusion. It’s like, if you stimulate your pleasure centers with an electrode, and you say “hmmm that feels good”, was the pleasure an illusion? No. It may have been physically an illusion, but not experientially, and the latter is what really matters. Experience is what really matters, or is at least enough to make something real. That consciousness exists is undeniable. “I think, therefore I am.” Experience is the basis of all fact.
Do you agree that there is a set of equations that precisely describes the universe? You can compute the solutions for any system of differential equations through an infinite series of ever finer approximations.
there’s no guarantee that the laws of physics would necessarily generate conscious beings
The Turing machine might calculate the entire tree of all timelines, including this conversation. Do you suggest that there is a manner in which one can run a universe, that only starts to make a difference once life gets far enough, without which the people in it would fail to talk about consciousness?
If we wrote out a complete log of that tree on a ludicrously large piece of paper, and then walked over to the portion of it that describes this conversation, I am not claiming that we should treat the transcript as something worth protecting. I’m claiming that whatever the characters in the transcript have, that’s all we have.
Still, that could all happen with philosophical zombies. A computer agent (AI) doesn’t sleep and can function forever. These 2 factors is what leads me to believe that computers, as we currently define them, won’t ever be alive, even if they ever come to emulate the world perfectly. At best they’ll produce p-zombies.
“if one might make a conscious being out of Silicon but not out of a Turing machine”
I also doubt that btw.
“what happens when you run the laws of physics on a Turing machine and have simulated humans arise”
Is physics computable? That’s an open question.
And more importantly, there’s no guarantee that the laws of physics would necessarily generate conscious beings.
Even if it did, could be p-zombies.
“What do you mean by “certainly exists”? One sure could subject someone to an illusion that he is not being subjected to an illusion.”
True. But as long as you have someone, it’s no longer an illusion. It’s like, if you stimulate your pleasure centers with an electrode, and you say “hmmm that feels good”, was the pleasure an illusion? No. It may have been physically an illusion, but not experientially, and the latter is what really matters. Experience is what really matters, or is at least enough to make something real. That consciousness exists is undeniable. “I think, therefore I am.” Experience is the basis of all fact.
Do you agree that there is a set of equations that precisely describes the universe? You can compute the solutions for any system of differential equations through an infinite series of ever finer approximations.
The Turing machine might calculate the entire tree of all timelines, including this conversation. Do you suggest that there is a manner in which one can run a universe, that only starts to make a difference once life gets far enough, without which the people in it would fail to talk about consciousness?
If we wrote out a complete log of that tree on a ludicrously large piece of paper, and then walked over to the portion of it that describes this conversation, I am not claiming that we should treat the transcript as something worth protecting. I’m claiming that whatever the characters in the transcript have, that’s all we have.
Still, that could all happen with philosophical zombies. A computer agent (AI) doesn’t sleep and can function forever. These 2 factors is what leads me to believe that computers, as we currently define them, won’t ever be alive, even if they ever come to emulate the world perfectly. At best they’ll produce p-zombies.