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

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Tue, 4 Apr 2017 at 9:39 am, Will Steinberg <steinberg.will at gmail.com>
wrote:

> A robot can't be built by a tornado.  Natural selection on earth is not
> comparable to a tornado.  Consciousness breeds consciousness.
>

Natural selection built consciousness and natural selection is not
conscious. It is a slow and stupid process and that is why it took billions
of years to do it. Doing it all at once by a random process would take
zillions of years, but there is no logical reason why it couldn't happen,
and in fact arguably given enough time it must happen.

So I would say that any tornado that builds consciousness it conscious.
> IMHO, every tornado is conscious anyway, but not sapient which I feel like
> people here and everywhere routinely swap with sentience as they see fit.
>
> Regarding the Chinese Room, now you're just talking about who believes in
> a god and who doesn't.  I happen to be a pantheist/panentheist.  I believe
> that the conscious godhead splits itself into pieces (originally two, at
> least in the case of our universe) and those pieces lose the infinite
> knowledge of that god, so they seek each other out through dialectical
> materialism.
>
> I still think you are missing the point.  Thought experiments are flawed
> because they are created by conscious beings.  You're leaving out the
> important fact that we humans on this list are affecting the ontology of
> your thought experiment.
>

I don't see what that has to do with it. Either a non-conscious process or
a conscious process can make consciousness. You haven't explained why you
disagree, if in fact I understand you and you do disagree.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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