Thread: How are we not a computer?

Although it's a small point, I'd point out I do think there is an important and clear difference between consciousness and life. Also, I don't think chemistry, that is to say the behaviours of nucleons and electrons, is necessary for / synonymous with consciousness; all that is required is an embodiment of a 'conscious algorithm'. For example, it could be embodied in a complex system of photons and mirrors, which isn't really chemistry (or Chinese people with mobile phones, using the famous philosophy of mind thought experiment); or, taking a more fanciful example, any other kind of universe in the hypothetical multiverse where such a system can emerge from any kind of process, which may bear very little resemblance to chemistry. Or indeed, if such a thing can exist, a universe which simply consists of the algorithm.

Originally Posted by Xei

Although it's a small point, I'd point out I do think there is an important and clear difference between consciousness and life. Also, I don't think chemistry, that is to say the behaviours of nucleons and electrons, is necessary for / synonymous with consciousness; all that is required is an embodiment of a 'conscious algorithm'. For example, it could be embodied in a complex system of photons and mirrors, which isn't really chemistry (or Chinese people with mobile phones, using the famous philosophy of mind thought experiment); or, taking a more fanciful example, any other kind of universe in the hypothetical multiverse where such a system can emerge from any kind of process, which may bear very little resemblance to chemistry. Or indeed, if such a thing can exist, a universe which simply consists of the algorithm.

Expanding on this by asking... what exactly is stopping a bunch of water molecules, for example, from interacting in a way that could be "seen" as creating a temporary instantaneous consciousness? Where can we set the limit (philosophically speaking)? What's so inherent in the brain, if it's all about algorithms, that makes this consciousness possible... and if there is nothing, as we are arguing here with the synthetic consciousness problem, wouldn't it be safe-ish to conclude that there is a multitude of consciousness's existing at every moment due to an infinite amount of permutations where the transfer of information occurs?