[ExI] More thoughts on sentient computers

[Giovanni Santostasi]

*Dave: No, brains aren't a simulation of the world. What you're trying to
say is that brains contain a representation of the world.*Giovanni: that
representation of the world and how it is used by the brain is exactly a
simulation. You take certain inputs, you pass it through the representation
in a dynamic way and you get an output that is your new state of the
simulation, we do this iteratively over and over and this is exactly what a
simulation is. In fact, this is how we can navigate the world, we make
simulations of it and make predictions of what is going to happen next, in
the physical world, in the mind of others, and in our own mind.  In fact, I
said simulation is not a good word for this but I take it back, it is a
very good word for all this.
The fact we are biological is completely irrelevant.

If you are implying that there are "real" sensations and reactions in our
biology to the sensory inputs we receive that can be replicated by
non-carbon based substrata, what is the big deal about being biological?
Giovanni



On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 6:03 PM Giovanni Santostasi <gsantostasi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> A simulation is *a model that mimics the operation of an existing or
> proposed system, providing evidence for decision-making by being able to
> test different scenarios or process changes*.
>
> Dave: What the brain does is absolutely a simulation according to the
> definition above. A representation of the world is a simulation of the
> world. Theory of mind is a simulation of other minds.
> What else would you mean for a simulation?
> I gave you the example of dreams, that are absolutely a simulation of our
> perceived reality. Explain our waking state is so dissimilar from the dream
> state? I did explain that we receive sensory info from the external world
> that anchors our interpretation and model making to real inputs instead of
> internally created ones. But it is basically similar to what happened when
> we interact with a simulated world via mouse inputs. It is still a
> simulation even if it received external inputs.
> Giovanni
>
> On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 5:54 PM Dave S via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> On Wednesday, February 22nd, 2023 at 7:09 PM, Giovanni Santostasi via
>> extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Giovanni: Our brain is a simulation, not sure why it is not understood
>> by most people.
>> > Dave: I don't think it's true. Our brains are biological organs. I
>> don't understand what you think they're simulations of.
>> > It is a simulation of the "real world".
>>
>> No, brains aren't a simulation of the world. What you're trying to say is
>> that brains contain a representation of the world.
>>
>> > When we process information about sensory inputs we have in our brain
>> routines that interpret what the signals mean, this is done in a
>> hierarchical way. From simple components of the sensory information all the
>> way to naming the object in our head, associating it with similar
>> experiences we had in the past and so on. For example, let's say you see a
>> red box. You are really not "seeing" the box but simulating it in your head
>> (maybe simulating is not the best word but close enough).
>>
>> It's not close enough, though, because it resulted in this
>> misunderstanding.
>>
>> -Dave
>>
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>
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