Re: [nanotech] the core issue

From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Mar 31 2000 - 13:44:16 MST


>From: Dan McGuirk <mcguirk@indirect.com>
>
>So, I buy the idea that if you gradually replace my neurons with
>computerized equivalents, I will continue to have conscious experiences,
>which will eventually arise completely from calculations taking place in a
>machine instead of biological neurons firing.

Why would it have to be gradual? Do you think it would it be any different
if your neurons were suddenly replaced?

>It seems likely to me that my consciousness is attached to the particular
>quantum state of my brain.

Seems to me, layman that I am, that the relevant contours of your
consciousness would depend on a scale much larger than the quantum level.
>From what little I know, a synapse is either formed or it is not. Therefore
it seems to me that anything going on below the molecular level would have
no relevant effect upon your consciousness.

>I haven't read Max More's paper-- I'll try that.

Me too.

-Zero

"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson

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