[ExI] Coherent vs. Incoherent Fears of Being Uploaded

[Gordon Swobe]

--- On Thu, 1/21/10, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

> Every cognitive task involves a feeling, insofar as I
> am aware that I am doing it. If I am counting, I am aware of the
> feeling of counting. Computers can count, but I really doubt that they
> have anything like my feeling. When I count, I sort of have a
> grand view of all the numbers yet to come, an awareness that I am
> counting and the reason I am counting, a vision of each number as it is
> would appear written down, an association with significant numbers from
> other aspects of my life, and so on. A computer does not do these
> things, because they are for the most part not necessary for the
> task. However, a conscious computer would reflect on its actions
> in this way..

Excellent. We have essentially the same ideas about the issues even if we don't agree.

Some people seem to deny the existence of consciousness and thus their own experiences of life in what look to me like vain attempts to escape the conclusion that humans might have something computers do not have. I don't have much to say to them.

I start with the observation that I have conscious experiences of having a life. I figured that much out back on the day the doctor spanked my butt in the maternity ward. 

-gts