[ExI] Zombie glutamate

[John Clark]

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 10:57 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
wrote:

>>> Brent believes that consciousness is not due to the system
>>> structure but rather to the substrate.
>>
>>
>> >> If computers with the same logical structure but with different
>> substrates (say vacuums tubes,  Germanium transistors and Silicon
>> transistors) all came up with different answers when you multiplied 27 by
>> 54 I'd have a lot more confidence that this theory is correct, but they
>> don't, they all come up with 1458.  Actually calling this a theory is
>> giving it too much credit as there is no experiment that can be performed
>> to prove it wrong, or even a experiment that would allow you to learn a
>> little more about it.
>>
>
> > There are experiments that can be performed - try a physically
> different, but chemically identical substrate using alternative isotopes.
> t would work just the same
>

That would just show what we already know, that intelligent behavior would
not be effected; but how could you demonstrate that consciousness was not
changed? You couldn't. That's why consciousness theories, as opposed to
intelligence theories, are so popular on the internet, they're easy because
they don't have to actually do anything or explain any experimental
results, they can just prattle on and on and one consciousness theory works
just as well (or badly) as another. It would take intelligence and a lot of
it to come up with a good intelligence theory; but a consciousness
theoretician doesn't need that, intelligence is just optional for him.
Consciousness is easy but intelligence is hard.

  John K Clark
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