[ExI] Is Artificial Life Conscious?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On Wed, 11 May 2022 at 03:00, Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 10, 2022 at 9:15 AM Stathis Papaioannou via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 11 May 2022 at 00:02, Brent Allsop via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Yes, that is all true, but it is still missing the point.
>>> There must be something in the system which has a coolorness quality.
>>> You must be able to change redness to greenness, and if you do, the
>>> system must be able to report that the quality has changed.
>>> If that functionality is not included somewhere in the system, it does
>>> not have sufficient functionality to be considered conscious.
>>>
>>
>> There is something in the system that gives rise to colourless qualities,
>>
> This is a falsifiable claim.  The prediction is that our abstract
> description of something like glutamate, is a description of redness, and
> that nothing else but that will be able to get redness to 'arise'.  Nothing
> will have an intrinsic redness quality, without glutamate (or whatever it
> is that has the redness quality)
>
> but it can be replicated by anything else that replicates the reporting of
>> it.
>>
> Yes, I agree.  The prediction is that the neuro substitution will fail,
> because nothing but glutamate has the redness quality.
> And saying that consciousness must work in a discrete logic way, where
> there is no substrate dependence on redness, and no ability to report the
> change to greeness, is missing the point.
> Because if that is the case redness can't supervene on anything, including
> functions, for the same substitution reason.
>

You have never explained what you think would happen if the glutamate were
replaced with something that could replicate the observable behaviour, the
pattern of glutamate molecules’ interactions with other molecules via the
electromagnetic force, but not the qualia.

> --
Stathis Papaioannou
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