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

Rafal Smigrodzki rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com
Fri Dec 30 06:41:26 UTC 2016


On Mon, Dec 12, 2016 at 11:33 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>
> Here's another way to look at it. Suppose your brain contained identical
> parallel circuits A and B, tied together at input and output, which could
> be switched on and off independently of each other. It would be difficult
> to do with biological tissue due to chaotic internal processes but more
> straightforward if you consider a digital implant. Obviously, if you switch
> A and B off together you will lose all the functionality of the circuitry.
> But if you switch off either A or B, you will notice no change.
>

### Let's say the A/B circuits run all the way from a simulation of your
spinal cord sensory areas, such as the substantia gelatinosa, all the way
to the frontal lobe cortical areas involved in attaching an affective
valence to sensory stimuli (cingulate cortex, DLPF and others). We simulate
the neural processes of you being slowly burned alive, separately in
circuit A and in circuit B, and route the identical output to the rest of
the brain. Obviously, the other parts of the brain, involved in e.g.
producing screams and generating a memory of pain, will not scream twice as
loud, or remember twice the pain. Yet, a process sufficient to produce the
experience of pain ran twice. Are you sure you know how much pain was
actually experienced by the system as a whole (A+B+ the rest of you)?
Please note that the observable results of the experiment (loud screaming)
would be the same no matter whether A/B are digital or analog.

As I mentioned in the initial post, I do not know. My intuitions are
overtaxed by the problem.

Rafal
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