From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Tue Dec 12 2000 - 21:37:55 MST
You forgot Max More, who has asserted that the notion of
"consciousness" may go the way of phlogiston, vitalism, ether, etc.
--J. R.
> John (and the Dennet camp in general?) maintain that
> consciousness/intelligence is the program. It is the pure
information, the
> set of intructions, and thus has all the properties of digital
information;
> particularly, it can be flawlessly copied. Copies are not distinct
things;
> they are all the same information, and so are the same.
>
> Jason, and myself, and possibly David Chalmers (although I can't
be certain
> of this), propose that consciousness is somehow part of the
running process;
> it is distinct from the computer (or the wetware of the brain), it
is also
> distinct from (although well described by) the program, the
instructions
> which the machine is following; the way the brain is wired up.
>
> Damien, and probably someone else in the world, takes a third
position; that
> intelligence/consciousness is actually the substrate, the
computer, the
> physical brain. More acurately, I think he proposes that it is the
> combination of program and machine, the brain given a particular
> configuration.
>
> Am I correct in these attributions?
>
> Emlyn
>
>
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