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

[Adrian Tymes]

On Tue, Mar 7, 2017 at 1:23 PM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed., 8 Mar. 2017 at 7:17 am, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I don't, unless and until any functional components can actually be built
>> from them - at which point they stop being any sort of mysticism, so by
>> definition that won't happen.
>
> Yes: if consciousness were due to something other than or in addition to the
> observable behaviour of brain components then that would allow for a
> decoupling of mind from body.

That brings up another problem: one would need a strict definition of
"consciousness", such that anything complying with that definition
would be judged conscious.

Imagine a human chauvinist, who refused to agree that any machine
could be conscious but was not willing to openly defend "only humans
can be conscious" (perhaps in part to have to avoid defining "human",
including whether humans who have suffered extreme lobotomy still
qualify, whether someone who is sleeping counts as presently conscious
or worth protecting due to expected near-term resumption of
consciousness, what the line is between sleeping versus a persistent
vegetative state, and so on).  For every definition offered, a
transhumanist could then ask, "So if I built a machine that...then it
would be conscious?  If not, why not?"