[extropy-chat] Fragmentation of computations

[Russell Wallace]

On 3/27/07, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Similarly, if computations can be self-aware, then self-aware computations
> must be lurking all around us in noise, perhaps in elaborate virtual worlds,
> but never able to interact in any way with the substrate of their
> implementation. The only way to avoid this strange idea is to say that
> computations can't be self-aware.
>

Well as I said I think there are two approaches to this idea, the Platonist
one which embraces it in terms of the Tegmark multiverse, and the Popperian
one which bypasses it as irrelevant where there isn't any way to interact
with the purported entities. Nor do these contradict each other; it's
perfectly possible to be a Platonist when wearing a philosopher's hat, and a
Popperian for purposes of making actual decisions.
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