[ExI] 10 Predictions About the Future That Should Scare the Hell Out of You

[William Flynn Wallace]

 we know for a fact that consciousness can change the physical state of an
object. john

How do we know this?  Physics experiments?  Done is the presence of awake
or sleeping physicists?

How do we, that is, this group, or just you, define consciousness?  An
amoeba is aware of its environment and reacts to it.  What more do you
want?  Thinking?  OK, define that.  I 'think' that creatures down to bugs
are conscious and maybe a lot further.  Worms can learn.  Does that take
consciousness or thinking?

My problem is that these terms just keep getting thrown around with no real
definition, so we can't tell if we are talking at cross purposes.

Yes, I've read Dennett and he didn't help.

bill w

On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 12:25 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 12:17 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> <
>> http://gizmodo.com/10-predictions-about-the-future-that-should-scare-the-h-1783538821
>> >
>>
>> ​> ​
>> Being of a pessimistic outlook (i.e. a realist)
>
>
> ​I don't think a pessimist is inherently more intelligent than a optimist,
> although he can write more attention grabbing headlines.  ​
>
>
> ​>​
>> all ten scenarios seem
>> ​ ​
>> pretty likely to me,
>
> 2. People who transfer their minds to computers are actually killing
>> themselves
>
>
> ​Some of the worries on the list are genuine ( like "
> create their own pandemic
> ​")​
> but that one is just silly. We know for a fact that changes in the
> physical state of an object can change consciousness and we know for a fact
> that consciousness can change the physical state of an object. And we also
> know that Evolution can see intelligent behavior but ​
>
> ​not consciousness, but we also know for a fact that nevertheless
> Evolution managed to produced at least one thing that was conscious and
> probably many billions. So it you get the physics right so that intelligent
> behavior is produced consciousness will come along for the ride.  ​
>
> ​> ​
>> 3. Authoritarianism will make a comeback
>
>
> ​We'll know more about that after November 8​.
>
> 6. The effects of climate change will be irreversible
>
>
> ​Who cares? Certainly not me.​
>
> ​> ​
>> 10. We’ll never make contact with aliens
>
>
> ​We won't if we're the first, and that seems increasingly likely to me,
> and I think that's optimistic not pessimistic.​
>
> ​If we were to find aliens tomorrow their technology couldn't be
> enormously more advanced than our own or we'd have detected them long ago;
>  ​that would mean there must be a calamity of some sort that falls on
> technological civilizations when they get to about the point we're in right
> now.
>
>  John K Clark
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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