[ExI] Redness comes from Context? Was Re: Digital Consciousness

[Stefano Vaj]

On 6 May 2013 00:05, Mike Perry <mike at alcor.org> wrote:

> "A set of bits fully describing the brain" in effect *is* the brain, *from
> the "context" (I like to call it a "frame of reference") in which it is
> embedded. This set of bits could describe state changes in that brain over
> time. In effect this "brain" (just a static record to us) can be thought of
> as being a conscious system *relative to its own frame of reference*.
> Relative to that it might indeed be perceiving red.


It is really hard for me to understand how "perceiving red" can be
considered as the subject of a meaningful discussion unless in the terms of
deciding whether something is able to point to something and say "red" in
agreement with a number of other entities sharing the same label.

I think that dualism, where "consciousness" would be something distinct
from the behaviours it gives place to, is a cultural artifact which we
could finally dispose of even in the west without any obvious practical or
theoretical inconvenient.

--
Stefano Vaj
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