[ExI] Quantum consciousness, quantum mysticism, and transhumanist engineering

[Will Steinberg]

If a tornado make the Chinese Room, "Chinese" would cease to have any
meaning!  There's nobody to understand the Chinese.  You need 'The Chinese
Language' to exist in order for the Chinese Room to have any context.

Otherwise you're talking about a tornado making meaningless arrangements of
matter.

Say the tornado not only made the Chinese Room, but also created the
Chinese language.  Well, it would also have to create something to
understand the language, let's say humanity.

So in order for the Chinese Room to be the *Chinese Room*, the tornado must
create an intelligent species and that species must develop Chinese.  And
that's the same thing I have been talking about.

You're imagining the 'Chinese Room' being magically developed by a tornado
in some pocket universe, devoid of any other information.  But you're
forgetting--it's YOU calling it the Chinese Room!  If you take John K Clark
out of the equation, the Chinese Room is suddenly meaningless.

A "fully functional" "747" ready to "fly" means NOTHING without an observer
who understands these criteria.  It may as well be a lump of degenerate
matter.  Once you put a John K Clark there to assay the matter and
correctly call it a 747, like some aeronautical Adam, you've connected the
747 to the entire conscious history of humanity and the universe--and THAT
is how it obtains its meaning.  Not by some god damn fucking tornado, lmao.

I really don't understand how so many of you don't understand that you're
making the huge assumption that the creator of these thought experiments is
around to assign meaning to their contents.  Meaning comes from
consciousness, which comes from the beginning of the universe.  All meaning
ever created will stem from that chain.

It's so simple.  I wish I could tag Colin Hales here.  You guys have it
completely and utterly incorrect.
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