[ExI] Zombie glutamate

[John Clark]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 5:02 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>> OK, but you have no way of proving what that "something" is, and this
>> isn't
>> >> just because of technological limitations, you have no way of proving
>> it
>> >> even in theory. A proof isn't worth much if one of the steps in it
>> requires
>> >> you to perform a impossible task.
>
>
> >You don't need to know what it is. If it is something in the brain,
> then you systematically replace every part of the brain and eventually
> you will get to it.
>

You will get to consciousness eventually for certain if every replacement
part gives the same output for every given input that you can measure in
your lab AND if every theoretical logically possible input and output that
no lab could ever measure is also identical; so the only way you can be
sure you've covered all your bases, even the ridiculously unlikely ones, is
if the replacement is not just functionally identical but identical in
every way. But if all the replacement parts are identical in every way then
you haven't really done anything, you haven't really replaced anything, you
had a biological brain before and you have a identical biological brain
after you've done all your "replacing". You've proven nothing except that
X=X.

 John K Clark




>
> >> >  and then we consider what happens if we partly replace that something
> >> > with a non-conscious but otherwise normally functioning analogue.
> >
> >
> > And since you don't know what that "something" is you have no way of
> knowing
> > if that replacement part has it or not. So maybe it's conscious and maybe
> > it's not.
>
> But you will get to it eventually, even in your ignorance. What could
> possibly happen happen if the something is partly replaced?
>
>
> --
> Stathis Papaioannou
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>
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