X-Message-Number: 17914
From: 
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 10:09:48 EST
Subject: Qualia & substrates

--part1_42.1d4e582a.292291bc_boundary
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

David Shipman (#17911) points out--as many scientists, perhaps most, somehow 
have failed to realize--that the essence of life as we know it is feeling 
(the capability of subjective experience) not intelligence. But then he 
writes:

> >So once we figure out how consciousness works in humans, we 
> >can duplicate it in our intelligent artifacts. 

As I have said many times over many years, this doesn't follow. The "self 
circuit" would seem to require binding of space and time, and PERHAPS 
specialized physics or biophysics, such as a particular kind of standing 
wave, conceivably possible only in organic matter. To deny this possibility 
is equivalent to embracing the "information paradigm" which is merely a 
conjecture.

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
www.cryonics.org 

--part1_42.1d4e582a.292291bc_boundary

 Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII"

[ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] 

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17914