[extropy-chat] cryonicist living life in reverse

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 3/14/07, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:

For otherwise, we might just find random patches of dust already existing
> between the galaxies, and by looking at them the right way, discern
> sequences of states congruent to a thinking, feeling being. About as
> silly as Hillary Putnam's proof that rocks perform computations.


The motion of the dust particles is certainly causally related, and dust
cloud is also increasing in entropy with time. Functionalism says that a
computation can be multiply implemented, and the experiences of any ensuing
mind is substrate-independent. In principle, even with your constraints,
there seems to be no reason why a dust cloud can't think.

Putnam and Searle have used the rock example as a reductio ad absurdum
against functionalism.

Stathis Papaioannou
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