Anders Sandberg, <asa@nada.kth.se>, writes:
> That is a different questions. There are arbitrary computations
> encoded in the thermal vibrations in my desk. Somewhere it is running
> my old ZX81 fractal program...
This is one of the paradoxes of the functionalist model for consciousness. If we believe that running a particular AI program is enough to create a feeling of consciousness, then it becomes necessary to cleanly define what constitutes running such a program. If thermal noise runs every program, including super-intelligent AI programs, then presumably there are conscious minds everywhere. Can we be sure that our own perceptions and memories are more than just fleeting patterns created by random vibrations somewhere?
Hal