[ExI] Do digital computers feel?

Stuart LaForge avant at sollegro.com
Tue Dec 27 05:42:07 UTC 2016


Stathis wrote:
<If the brain's engineering tolerance was such that the trillionth decimal
place in some parameter made a difference then the gravitational effect of
a mosquito in the next town would cause a drastic disruption. A machine so
lacking in robustness, whether made or evolved, could not work.>

It's not the physical structure of the brain that we are discussing but
the richness of mental states resulting from the brain's functioning. So
no a mosquito in the next town won't result in your brain melting down,
but it might influence your mood or your decision to buy mosquito netting.
Chaos theory describes the "butterfly effect", therefore a similar
mathematical treatment might allow small gravititational effects to
influence ones mental states in unpredictable ways.

Stuart LaForge





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