The Olson twins are do not at all have qualitative identity.
Not 100% , but enough to illustrate the concept.
So I just don’t know what your position is.
I didn’t have to have a solution to point out the flaws in other solutions. My main point is that a no to soul- theory isn’t a yes to computationalism. Computationalism isn’t the only alternative, or the best.
You claim that there doesn’t need to be an answer;
Some problems are insoluble.
that seems false, as you could have to make decisions informed by your belief.
My belief isn’t necessarily the actually really answer ..is it? That’s basic rationality. You need beliefs to act...but beliefs aren’t necessarily true.
And I have no practical need for a theory that can answer puzzles about destructive teleportation and the like.
You currently value your future self more than other people, so you act like you believe that’s you in a functional sense.
Yes. That’s not an argument in favour of the contentious points, like computationalism and Plural Is. If I try to reverse the logic, and great everything I value as me, I get bizarre results...I am my dog, country, etc.
Are you the same person tomorrow? It’s not an identical pattern, but a continuation.
Tomorrow-me is a physical continuation , too.
I’m saying it’s pretty-much you because the elements you wouldn’t want changed about yourself are there.
If I accept that pattern is all that matters , I have to face counterintuitive consequences like Plural I’s.
If I accept that material continuity is all that matters, then I face other counterintuitive consequences, like having my connectome rewired.
Its an open philosophical problem. If there were an simple answer , it would have been answered long ago.
“Yer an algorithm, Arry” is a simple answer. Just not
good
If you value your body or your continuity over the continuity of your memories, beliefs, values, and the rest of your mind that’s fine,
Fortunately, it’s not an either-or choice.
I certainly do believe in the plural I (under the speciall cirrumstance I discussed); we must be understanding something differently in the torture question. I don’t have a preference pre-copy for who gets tortured; both identical future copies are me from my perspective before copying. Maybe you’re agreeing with that?
...and post copy I have a preference for the copy who isn’t me to be tortured. Which is to say that both copies say the same thing, which is to say that they are only copies. If they regarded themselves as numerically identical, the response “the other one!” would make no sense, and nor would the question. The questions presumes a lack of numerical identity, so how can it prove it?
I was addressing a perfect computational copy. An imperfect but good computational copy is higher resolution, not lower, than a biological twin. It is orders of magnitude more similar to the pattern that makes your mind, even though it is less similar to the pattern that makes your body.
You’re assuming pattern continuity matters more than material continuity. There’s no proof of that, and no proof that you have to make an either-or choice.
What is writing your words is your mind, not your body, so when it says “I” it meets the mind.
The abstract pattern can’t cause anything without the brain/body.
Noncomputational physicalism sounds like it’s just confused. Physics performs computations and can’t be separated from doing that.
Noncomputational physicalism isn’t the claim that computation never occurs. Its the claim that the computational abstraction doesn’t capture everything that’s relevant to consciousness/mind. Its not physically necessary that the computational abstraction captures all the causally relevant information, so it isn’t logically necessary, a fortiori.
Dual aspect theory is incoherent because you can’t have our physics without doing computation that can create a being that claims and experiences consciousness like we do.
Computation is a lossy , high level abstraction of a what a physical system does. It doesn’t fundamentally cause anything in itself.
Now, you can argue that a physical duplicate would make the same claims to be conscious without actually having consciousness, and that’s literally a p-zombie argument.
But we do have consciousness. The insight of DAT is that “reports of consciousness have a physical/computational basis” isn’t exclusive of “reports of consciousness are caused by consciousness”. You can have your cake and eat it!
Of course, the above is all about consciousness-qua-awareness , not consciousness qua personal identity.
I concede it’s possible that consciousness includes some magic nonphysical component (that’s not computation or pattern instantiated by physics as a pure result of how physics works).
If it’s physical, why call it magical?
It’s completely standard that all computations run on a substrate. If you want to say that all physics is computation, OK, but then all computation is physics. You then no longer have plural I’s, because physics doesn’t allow the selfsame object to have multiple instances.
Do you think a successful upload would say things like “I’m still me!” and think thoughts like “I’m so glad I payed extra to give myself cool virtual environment options”? That seems like an inevitability if the causal patterns of your mind were captured. And it would be tough to disagree with a thing claiming up and down it’s you, citing your most personal memories as evidence
It’s easy to disagree if there is another explanation, which there is: a functional duplicate will behave the same, because it’s a functional duplicate..whether it’s conscious of not, whether it’s you or not.
.
Not 100% , but enough to illustrate the concept.
I didn’t have to have a solution to point out the flaws in other solutions. My main point is that a no to soul- theory isn’t a yes to computationalism. Computationalism isn’t the only alternative, or the best.
Some problems are insoluble.
My belief isn’t necessarily the actually really answer ..is it? That’s basic rationality. You need beliefs to act...but beliefs aren’t necessarily true.
And I have no practical need for a theory that can answer puzzles about destructive teleportation and the like.
Yes. That’s not an argument in favour of the contentious points, like computationalism and Plural Is. If I try to reverse the logic, and great everything I value as me, I get bizarre results...I am my dog, country, etc.
Tomorrow-me is a physical continuation , too.
If I accept that pattern is all that matters , I have to face counterintuitive consequences like Plural I’s.
If I accept that material continuity is all that matters, then I face other counterintuitive consequences, like having my connectome rewired.
Its an open philosophical problem. If there were an simple answer , it would have been answered long ago.
“Yer an algorithm, Arry” is a simple answer. Just not good
Fortunately, it’s not an either-or choice.
...and post copy I have a preference for the copy who isn’t me to be tortured. Which is to say that both copies say the same thing, which is to say that they are only copies. If they regarded themselves as numerically identical, the response “the other one!” would make no sense, and nor would the question. The questions presumes a lack of numerical identity, so how can it prove it?
You’re assuming pattern continuity matters more than material continuity. There’s no proof of that, and no proof that you have to make an either-or choice.
The abstract pattern can’t cause anything without the brain/body.
Noncomputational physicalism isn’t the claim that computation never occurs. Its the claim that the computational abstraction doesn’t capture everything that’s relevant to consciousness/mind. Its not physically necessary that the computational abstraction captures all the causally relevant information, so it isn’t logically necessary, a fortiori.
Computation is a lossy , high level abstraction of a what a physical system does. It doesn’t fundamentally cause anything in itself.
Now, you can argue that a physical duplicate would make the same claims to be conscious without actually having consciousness, and that’s literally a p-zombie argument.
But we do have consciousness. The insight of DAT is that “reports of consciousness have a physical/computational basis” isn’t exclusive of “reports of consciousness are caused by consciousness”. You can have your cake and eat it!
Of course, the above is all about consciousness-qua-awareness , not consciousness qua personal identity.
If it’s physical, why call it magical?
It’s completely standard that all computations run on a substrate. If you want to say that all physics is computation, OK, but then all computation is physics. You then no longer have plural I’s, because physics doesn’t allow the selfsame object to have multiple instances.
It’s easy to disagree if there is another explanation, which there is: a functional duplicate will behave the same, because it’s a functional duplicate..whether it’s conscious of not, whether it’s you or not.