Consciousness vs Interpretation of Consciousness
Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2017 6:00 am
If our consciousness can be reduced to information processing in the brain, would that same processing simulated on a computer be considered equally conscious? (assume yes for this discussion)
Computers compute by manipulating data which we can then interpret as computed. An example of what I mean is a Turing Machine made out of legos can make computations by shifting a row of legos back and forth to represent 1's and 0's which looks like this:
In this example the lego positions represent the memory. We can see the computer works as an example by feeding it 20 and 15, tell it to add them, and receiving a result of 35 as translated. But a person who knows nothing of how the positions of the legos translates into numbers will not see this as a computing device but rather just some lego machine flipping legos around. Is this still considered an adding machine even if someone does not see it as such? (can discuss this part)
If we simulated the processes of a human brain on a machine like this, even if no one perceives the computing device as a computing device won't it feel like a conscious to the concscious entity being simulated? Afterall aren't we still conscious regardless of whether someone else perceives us as conscious? (can discuss this part too)
Assuming the answers to these previous questions have been yes so far, couldn't any arbitrary data anywhere in the universe be interpreted as information that maps to our brain states. Just like I can take letters from this post and re-arrange the letters to show a completely different message. Doesn't that different message exist even if we don't know the mapping of how to re-arrange these letters to form the different message? Regardless of our inability to perceive the information, from the conscious being's perspective they should still feel conscious shouldn't they? Or is it required that a mind exist to interpret the data as the information in order for the consciousness to exist? If that's the case, does that mean we have to be conscious for the same reason?
Computers compute by manipulating data which we can then interpret as computed. An example of what I mean is a Turing Machine made out of legos can make computations by shifting a row of legos back and forth to represent 1's and 0's which looks like this:
In this example the lego positions represent the memory. We can see the computer works as an example by feeding it 20 and 15, tell it to add them, and receiving a result of 35 as translated. But a person who knows nothing of how the positions of the legos translates into numbers will not see this as a computing device but rather just some lego machine flipping legos around. Is this still considered an adding machine even if someone does not see it as such? (can discuss this part)
If we simulated the processes of a human brain on a machine like this, even if no one perceives the computing device as a computing device won't it feel like a conscious to the concscious entity being simulated? Afterall aren't we still conscious regardless of whether someone else perceives us as conscious? (can discuss this part too)
Assuming the answers to these previous questions have been yes so far, couldn't any arbitrary data anywhere in the universe be interpreted as information that maps to our brain states. Just like I can take letters from this post and re-arrange the letters to show a completely different message. Doesn't that different message exist even if we don't know the mapping of how to re-arrange these letters to form the different message? Regardless of our inability to perceive the information, from the conscious being's perspective they should still feel conscious shouldn't they? Or is it required that a mind exist to interpret the data as the information in order for the consciousness to exist? If that's the case, does that mean we have to be conscious for the same reason?