Re: Qualia and the Galactic Loony Bin

From: Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Date: Wed Jun 23 1999 - 11:47:36 MDT


Eliezer,
You keep telling me to read other posts. I don't think you realize that I
have read everything you referenced and still disagree with you. You seem
to assume that if I read your explanation, I would agree.

Mostly, I think this argument boils down to semantics and doesn't mean
anything. I was interpreting your replay as being a tape-recorder, and it
now appears that you are talking about a data lookup table to provide the
answers. I think this is a lot closer to how I think the brain really
works.

I should probably try to escape this discussion now. The causal system
seems to be the CPU that runs the program. The pattern system seems to be
the data stored as look-up tables. Looking at it this way, it seems that
both systems are necessary, and neither can function without the other. A
CPU can't run without a program file of commands to execute. It can't
interact with the world without driver files, i/o files, and firmware
programming. It can't do too much without memory or stored data to recall
as needed. Likewise, patterns on disk are useless without a program that
knows how to access the lookup table, and has the rules of how the table is
laid out and how to interpret the data. As such, both system require each
other.

--
Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.


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