[ExI] Fwd: Do digital computers feel was Re: Is the wave function real?

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 5:07 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I don't see why this should be a special consideration for digital
> computers. In a multiverse, if a bilogical brain instantiating an
> experience is repeated a hundred times, is that a hundred instances of the
> experience or only one? What about if it is repeated an infinite number of
> times?
>

### A biological brain does not perfectly retrace computational steps. Even
if the behavior of precisely copied biological brains is repeatable for
some time, the underlying neural activity will vary within milliseconds of
starting the run. So, identity of indiscernibles does not apply to the
physical process or to the fine informational structure of the runs.
Digital computers however can be run with perfect reproducibility, and the
underlying information processing can be completely described by a finite
bitstring. So, at least the informational aspect of the physical process of
digitized computation can be subject to identity of indiscernibles.

--------------------------------------

> If the hundred copies generate the same experience, whether in biological
> brains or computers (differing from each other only below a certain
> threshold), I would say there is only one experience. If my mind at present
> is being implemented on a hundred machines (brains or computers) running in
> lockstep, I don't care if all but one of them is shut down, because my
> consciousness will continue running on the remaining one. In other words,
> if my mind is implemented on one of a hundred machines running in lockstep,
> I have no way of knowing which machine it is running on, which machine my
> last thought ran on, or which machine my next thought will run on. As long
> as at least one machine keeps running, I'm happy; the other machines are
> useful only as backups, in case some of them fail.
>

### What if you see a hundred copies of somebody you love being tortured?
Is it the same as seeing only one being tortured?

-------------------------------------

>
> Consider what would happen if you replaced a volume of biological neural
> tissue with artificial neurons, designed to mimic as closely as possible
> its I/O behaviour. Would the brain as a whole continue to behave the same
> way? If not, what sort of deficits would you expect?
>

### The dancing qualia experiment is very interesting but I don't feel it
is applicable to this particular problem.


Rafal
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