[ExI] Zombie glutamate

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Saturday, February 21, 2015, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 5:02 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','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
>

If the replacement part perfectly copies the observable I/O behaviour of
the original part, then consciousness will necessarily also be copied. That
it would be technically difficult to do, or even physically impossible,
does not weaken the argument: consciousness is a necessary side-effect of
behaviour, and not something without causal efficacy of its own that can be
tacked on optionally.


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
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