[ExI] Digital Consciousness .

[Eugen Leitl]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 01:58:56AM -0700, Gordon wrote:
> Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> 
> >Simple qualia like ability to tell light from darkness
> >are reproducible by single-cell organisms (Euglena)
> >or trivial robots with a photocell and a few transistors.
> 
> >If you scrub the word clean from overweening philosophical
> >crud it's very simple.
> 
> Euglena are remarkable in that they seem to know lightness from darkness. But do they really experience qualia? I think not.?

But how do you *know* this? Just because the animal can't tell it you
in words you could understand, and because the transduction pathway
is known?
 
> I think real consciousness is about knowing what one knows. 

So consciousness is different from qualia? Or do qualia require consciousness?

> I know about the period at the end of this sentence, and I also know that I know about it. 

Many illiterate people have no idea what you mean by this.

> How does that happen? How do I not only see it, but also know that I see it? 

Self representation is a key factor in planning in higher animals.
So they most assuredly know where they are, what they do, and what they perceive.

> I think there is something going on here besides ordinary chemical reactions *as we currently understand them*. 

Possibly, but do you have any evidence for it?

> There is something happening in the biology/chemistry/physics of the brain that we do not yet understand. 

I happen to disagree strongly. You're claiming new physics. Nobody has yet found anything
like that in any biological system.

> I think we need to understand it before we can talk meaningfully about such things as strong AI and uploading.

So if the Si elegans model reproduces behavior from first principles and digitized
anatomy you would say that doesn't prove anything? How about a snail? A mouse?
Your pet? You?

Don't quote me on the latter two, but you should see at least a mouse in what
is left of your biological lifetime.