From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Thu May 31 2001 - 18:55:50 MDT
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-extropians@extropy.org
> [mailto:owner-extropians@extropy.org]On Behalf Of Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 7:05 PM
> To: extropians@extropy.org
> Subject: Re: uploading and the survival hang-up
>
>
> Ben Goertzel wrote:
> >
> > [magic]
>
> This is the sort of thing that would become instantly obvious if the
> upload(s) were running on digital hardware; it would require specific
> transistors to be ON when the CPU spec said OFF.
Answer 1)
Perhaps this is a good reason to upload ourselves to quantum computers
instead ;)
Answer 2)
I think this is not exactly right. If a digital system is in constant
real-time interaction with a quantum system (e.g. a message router whose
timing is susceptible to optical quantum noise, a human typing on a keyboard
at a rate determined by his hypothetically quantum-mechanical brain), then
the digital system itself may be considered a macroscopic quantum system.
Isolated, it's a classical system, but there may be no way to isolate it
without destroying its essence (a mind in a sensory deprivation chamber is
no longer the same mind exactly)....
A brief postscript. Eli knows this but everyone else may not. I am not a
strong "quantum mind" enthusiast; I definitely think superhuman intelligence
is achievable on digital computers, operating in classical physics modes.
But I also think that quantum computing can add a lot to computers, and I
consider it quite possible that the brain is a macroscopic quantum system in
some pragmatically meaningful sense. Quantum resonance is one way to
accelerate thinking; classical digital minds will have others. There are
many ways to make a mind.
ben
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