[ExI] The digital nature of brains (was: digital simulations)

Gordon Swobe gts_2000 at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 24 00:01:26 UTC 2010


--- On Sat, 1/23/10, Eric Messick <eric at m056832107.syzygy.com> wrote:

>> Stathis writes:

>> This is true, but you could hook up the simulation to a
>> thermometer
>> and it would be as good as a digital thermostat or you
> could just
> >have the simulated thermostat regulate the temperature
> of a simulated
> >room.  You could do the same with a simulated
> human: connect him to
> >sense organs or create a sufficiently rich virtual
> environment for
> >him. In either case he should be conscious.
> 
> Exactly!  I just said the same thing using a lot more
> words.

As I replied to Stathis, the simulated thermostat will not regulate temperature in a real room without adding hardware to the computer that runs the simulation. After you add that hardware you will have a real thermostat. But that new real thermostat will also defy your attempts to ignore reality: like the first it will not regulate temperature in a real room until you add something to the picture here in the real world.

Digital simulations of non-digital objects never equal the things they simulate, except that some people here like to imagine so.


-gts




      



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