X-Message-Number: 12998
From: "Bryan Moss" <>
Subject: Sentient Tiles
Date: Sat, 25 Dec 1999 03:59:46 -0000

Robert Ettinger gave several thought experiments on the
subject of sentient non-biological intelligences.

I think I can do better.

Wang has shown us that a Turing machine can be represented
as a tiling.  Creating a 'sentient' tiling is much like the
example of a mathematician plotting out an AI on a sheet of
paper, but also demonstrates an additional oddity.  A
sentient Wang tiling does not function across time but
across space.  I don't need to wait for a machine to finish
before I get my answer; it's already there, waiting for me
to interpret it.  In the same sense, the formulas of my
sentient equations can be said to be happy and sad at the
same time; as Robert has said, it's just a matter of what
variables I use.  The Wang tiling goes beyond a set of
equations because it represents all of this information
simultaneously.  It is in a superposed state of every
thought and every emotion it could ever have.  It is
reacting to every possible situation, seeing every possible
sight, and hearing every possible sound.

Some questions...

- If I reposition the tiles, are they still sentient?

- If we assume that the tiles are consciousness, since their
  physicality affords no function other than to inform us
  of their existence, is it necessary for them to exist to
  be conscious?

For the record I happen to think that Wang tiles experience
as much thought and feeling as the rest of us.

It's 4 AM and there's no sign of Santa,

BM

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