[ExI] Can philosophers produce scientific knowledge?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Sun, 9 May 2021 at 03:43, Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> To support Stathis's position:

Functionalism requires 2 things:
1. that the physics used by the brain is computable
2. That nothing in the brain requires an infinite amount of information

For 1: No known law of physics is uncomputable. Some argue wave function
collapse is incomputable, but you can simulate all possibilities (i.e. many
worlds) either on a quantum computer or on a classical computer with
exponential slowdown.

For 2: The brain (and rest of the body) is created from the finite
information of the DNA (~700 MB) together with information learned through
the senses which is also finite (~Gigabit / second). Moreover, quantum
mechanics imposes a strict upper bound (The Bekenstein bound) on the
information content of physical systems if finite energy and volume.

So the only argument against the logical possibility of function requires
posing some new non-computable physics (Like Penrose), or suggesting that
the brain contains an infinite amount of information.

If physics is computable and the brain's information content is finite,
then in principle an appropriately programmed computer could perfectly
emulate the behavior of the brain.

This appears confirmed so far, as detailed brain simulations using existing
knowledge of the biochemical properties of neurons have replicated
behaviors and patterns of firing across large brain regions. See, for
example, the Human Brain Project's results with mouse brains and whisker
stimulation: https://youtu.be/ldXEuUVkDuw

Penrose’s position is at least logical, even if scientifically wrong.
However, it is an argument against computationalism, a type of
functionalism. Functionalism can still be preserved if the brain involves
non-computable physics by imagining the use of a hypercomputer that can
handle these calculations. The likely non-existence of such a device does
not invalidate the logical argument.
-- 
Stathis Papaioannou
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20210509/0b1c70af/attachment-0001.htm>