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

John Clark johnkclark at gmail.com
Fri Mar 10 21:23:11 UTC 2017


On Fri, Mar 10, 2017  Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:

​>> ​
> There are only 3 ways out of this contradiction:
> 1) Darwin was dead wrong.
> 2) I am unique, I am the last conscious being in the universe
> 3)
>> Consciousness is the unavoidable byproduct of intelligence because
> consciousness is just the way data feel when it is being processed.
> ​I don't think Darwin was wrong so it's got to be #2 or 3.​
>
>
> ​> ​
> I think it's 3, but the other possibility is that consciousness is tied to
> organic chemistry, and if evolution had electric circuits to play with, for
> example, then the world would have been filled with zombie robots instead
> of conscious animals. On the face of it this is implausible but not absurd;
>

​Neither I nor anybody else will ever be able to prove that the idea that
the element carbon is inherently more conscious than the element silicon
​is wrong, but I think I can prove it's silly.



> ​>​
> it becomes evident that this would mean either that consciousness and
> behaviour are decoupled,
>

​As far as consciousness is concerned I can only speak for myself, but I
know for a fact that my consciousness and my behavior are *NOT* decoupled.​



> ​> ​
> or that it would be possible to have an arbitrarily large change in your
> consciousness and not notice.
>

​If you're not conscious of a change in your consciousness then what
exactly about your consciousness has changed?​


​ John K Clark





>
>
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