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Yakk · 04-15-2004, 07:39 AM

Is a computer program part of a computer?

Is the intended purpose a computer is designed for part of the computer?

I suspect consciousness might "simply" be our brain modeling and predicting our own behaviour, as a result of our ability to model and predict other's behaviour. We built up this complex and somewhat accurate ability to model the behaviour of other humans and the universe around us, and we turned it around on ourselfs. And hence, we became conscious of ourselves.

Based off the current ways of thinking in vogue, I'd use an analogy of a computer and computer program. If I was born 100 years ago, I'd probably make analogies about mechanical gears and the like: I suspect the computer analogy is closer to the truth. I also suspect we'll come up with better analogies in the next 100 years. =)

A sufficiently complex system can have emergent properties. I've built systems by hand that generate properties that aren't coded into the atomic units of the system: it wasn't that hard. I don't find it hard to suspect that given a sufficiently complex system arranged in sufficiently complex and interesting ways emergent properties like consciousness could occur. And, if you emulated the system perfectly, the emergent property would exist in the emulation.

My soul is softwired.

As for uploading, I'd suspect people will upload themselves and keep on living until they choose to die. Possibly people will delay the uploading until they are ready to die. Or, upload repeatedly, and don't execute: only start the execution after they have died. It will probably take much longer to figure out uploading than it will to figure out how to construct AIs from scratch however...

04-15-2004, 07:39 AM	#18 (permalink)
Yakk Wehret Den Anfängen! Location: Ontario, Canada	Is a computer program part of a computer? Is the intended purpose a computer is designed for part of the computer? I suspect consciousness might "simply" be our brain modeling and predicting our own behaviour, as a result of our ability to model and predict other's behaviour. We built up this complex and somewhat accurate ability to model the behaviour of other humans and the universe around us, and we turned it around on ourselfs. And hence, we became conscious of ourselves. Based off the current ways of thinking in vogue, I'd use an analogy of a computer and computer program. If I was born 100 years ago, I'd probably make analogies about mechanical gears and the like: I suspect the computer analogy is closer to the truth. I also suspect we'll come up with better analogies in the next 100 years. =) A sufficiently complex system can have emergent properties. I've built systems by hand that generate properties that aren't coded into the atomic units of the system: it wasn't that hard. I don't find it hard to suspect that given a sufficiently complex system arranged in sufficiently complex and interesting ways emergent properties like consciousness could occur. And, if you emulated the system perfectly, the emergent property would exist in the emulation. My soul is softwired. As for uploading, I'd suspect people will upload themselves and keep on living until they choose to die. Possibly people will delay the uploading until they are ready to die. Or, upload repeatedly, and don't execute: only start the execution after they have died. It will probably take much longer to figure out uploading than it will to figure out how to construct AIs from scratch however... __________________ Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.