Re: Consciousness, materialism and downloading

From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Tue Mar 07 2000 - 06:05:02 MST


> Hello everyone, this is my first post to this group
> so if my thoughts are old (or dumb ;), please
> bear with me.

Old, actually. ;)

> Doesn't this thought-experiment in some sense imply that the
> model is flawed, that the core of consciousness
> (if one is a materialist, anyway) must in some
> way involve effects of EM-fields?

No, it implies that consciousness is connected with information, which can
obviously be instantiated in EM-fields, but can also be instantiated in
anything else you like. Think Babbage's Analytical Engine here: a
mechanical computer. Build it big enough, one would suppose, and it would
be conscious, too, just like your imagined computer chips. Does this
imply that consciousness must in some way involve gears and rods?

> What effect does this have on Moravec's downloading?

It seems to imply that uploading will work.

See John Clark's Waiting for Zed:

http://www.extropy.org/eo/articles/zed.htm

-Dan

      -unless you love someone-
    -nothing else makes any sense-
           e.e. cummings



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