[ExI] Addition Functionalism (was Mindless Thought Experiments)

[Lee Corbin]

Stathis writes

>>  [I would say] that Addition Functionalism
>>  is correct. My proviso: the key factor is how explicit it is. If two planetoids
>>  gently collide, their masses are explicitly added, but if Van Maanen's Star
>>  and S Doradus each emit a certain but different number of photons in a
>>  given second, then the addition is highly implicit (or hidden).
>>
>>  At a different, higher level, an intelligent entity (from a crow to an advanced
>>  AI) may map these environmental additions, but mostly only explicit ones,
>>  into mental sums or feelings of numerical quantity.
> 
> There's not much practical difference between saying addition is not
> implemented unless...

I'm sure you meant "difference between saying addition is implimented unless..."
So I'll proceed on that basis. You wrote

> There's not much practical difference between saying addition is
> implemented unless someone observes it, or addition is implemented
> but is of no interest unless someone observes it.

I'll agree with the latter, but my guess is that we can get away with
saying that what remote non-intelligent natural processes sometimes
do is "add", and to call this process addition. I like to de-emphasize
observers and to try to use scientific sentences to apply to phenomena,
whether or not they are observed by anything, just as we do in
daily life.

> But if the physical process in question has associated with it
> consciousness, you would have to say that the consciousness
> still happens,

Yes, consciousness is a physical activity, and surely someday rather
good criteria will be firmly established that sort all machines on the
continuum from the very conscious end to the unconscious pebbles
and trees on the other end. Our mind children will judge that we
now are already pretty good at it, I'll wager.

> unless you claim that it is somehow contingent on being observed
> by another conscious entity.

:-)  Yep, I have never liked the views that ascribe a role to consciousness,
though in some sense it can be argued that your observation determines
which universe you'll inhabit, and that may turn out to be isomorphic to
some of what the "consciousness counts" crowd says.

Lee