[extropy-chat] Fragmentation of computations

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 09:17:36PM +0100, Russell Wallace wrote:

>    By appropriate choice of target state. For conversation, you only need
>    a readout every X clock cycles, for a value of X that depends on the
>    implementation details but will in any case be significantly greater
>    than 1; and as you say, the computation in between will jump back and

I didn't have time to look into what happens in Hash Life in more detail.
For one the entire spacetime trajectory is contained in the hash, encoded.
For other, assembling a full trajectory frame and especially subsequent
trajectory frames is where the experience occurs.

As I said, I don't have time to think, so these are just opinions devoid of fact .

>    forth in a way that looks very strange to our eyes. If the objections
>    raised were correct, that would make Hash-Life Man a mostly-zombie -
>    an entity even more implausible than a total zombie, once you start
>    asking what it would feel like if you were being run in that state.
>    Here's another reductio ad absurdum: suppose the Simulation Argument
>    is true, and we are in fact all Hash-Life Men right now. Suppose
>    furthermore the Simulator flips a switch to turn off the Hash Life
>    optimization and change the program to straight linear computation.
>    Now we've gone from being 90-something% zombies to being fully
>    conscious, surely a marvellous boost. Do we sing in rapturous joy as
>    the wonder of full consciousness floods through our minds? But by
>    hypothesis the output remains identical to what it would have been. Do
>    we silently gibber in panic as our bodies go about their daily
>    routine, oblivious to our attempts to cry out in joy followed by
>    consternation? At this rate conscious rocks are starting to look
>    downright sensible.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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