[ExI] digital simulations, descriptions and copies

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2010/1/18 Gordon Swobe <gts_2000 at yahoo.com>:
> --- On Sun, 1/17/10, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Gordon does not seem to appreciate the difference between a
>> description and a simulation
>
> It seems some people here confuse or simply never understood the important difference between digital simulations and digital copies.
>
> Digital simulations = digital descriptions of non-digital objects and processes running on digital computers.
>
> Digital copies = digital duplications of digital objects.
>
> digital copy =  digital duplication
> digital simulation = digital description
>
> Digital copies equal the original objects. For example one might load Word onto digital computer A and load another copy of Word onto digital computer B. Those two applications running on A and B now exist as copies/duplicates of the original.
>
> What happens if the original object does not exist as a digital object? I.e., what if the original object does not exist as a digital computer or as a program like Word that runs on one? In that case we can do no more than create a digital simulation of the non-digital object. And digital simulations of non-digital objects do NOT equal the original objects. They merely describe them.
>
> For example you might create a digital simulation of an apple on your digital computer. Your digital simulation of an apple will appear very much like a real apple, but you will find it difficult to eat. The reason you cannot eat that apple should be pretty obvious: it's not really an apple. It's merely a digital simulation of a non-digital object.

But a digital simulation of a clock will still tell the time. You have
to show that consciousness is more like an apple than like the telling
of time.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou