6 ms·

> Conciousness is the process of simulation of reality. The "better" the simulation or the more complete and closer to "reality" it is (whatever that means) - t

> Conciousness is the process of simulation of reality. The "better" the simulation or the more complete and closer to "reality" it is (whatever that means) - the higher the form of conciousness. So would you say that a supercomputer in the process of calculating the gyromagnetic ratio of an isolated electron to 12 digits of accuracy is a higher form of consciousness than we are? After all, it is performing a much better simulation of reality than our brains in that case.

mh-cx 10y ago
No, because it only simulates a very small part of reality. For example it could never estimate the weather for the next 2 hours by looking at a formation of heavy clouds.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- mh-cx 10y ago
  Dreaming is really an interesting case. I'm not sure if I'd agree that it's a weak form of consciousness. It's maybe just some sort of play that the simulator does when it's not used for the outside world. It wildly tries out new things. If you consider that it has a whole physical and cultural universe at it's disposal, it's not really a surprise that this playing creates very bizarre stories sometimes. By doing so we may check for complex cross connections and gain new insights. Actually I vividly remember waking up from dreams and suddenly realizing that I have a crush on a girl. I didn't really the day before (or was not aware of it) but during dreaming my brain seemed to say "I've checked all information that we have about this specimen and my simulations so far look promising!" I sometimes also dream of deceased persons. The brain maybe again and again tries to make sense of this deeply unsettling experience and to somehow integrate that unexplainable into the simulation. (BTW sorry for misspelling consciousness all the time in my post above - it was a little too late here)
  - lttlrck 10y ago
    Really interesting. Imagination/visualization would be enabled by this simulation. For example I can visualize what is obscured by a wall.
vectorpush 10y ago
Perhaps the supercomputer does experience a kind of proto-consciousness.
- mh-cx 10y ago
  Right, as far as I understand it that's also close to how Tononi's and Koch's Integrated Information Theory[1] try to explain conscious phenomena. In their parlance the computer would have a low value of phi. I was surprised that this theory is not even mentioned in the article, even though Aaronson has quite some opinion on it.[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory [2] http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799

mh-cx 10y ago

No, because it only simulates a very small part of reality. For example it could never estimate the weather for the next 2 hours by looking at a formation of heavy clouds.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
mh-cx 10y ago
Dreaming is really an interesting case. I'm not sure if I'd agree that it's a weak form of consciousness. It's maybe just some sort of play that the simulator does when it's not used for the outside world. It wildly tries out new things. If you consider that it has a whole physical and cultural universe at it's disposal, it's not really a surprise that this playing creates very bizarre stories sometimes. By doing so we may check for complex cross connections and gain new insights. Actually I vividly remember waking up from dreams and suddenly realizing that I have a crush on a girl. I didn't really the day before (or was not aware of it) but during dreaming my brain seemed to say "I've checked all information that we have about this specimen and my simulations so far look promising!" I sometimes also dream of deceased persons. The brain maybe again and again tries to make sense of this deeply unsettling experience and to somehow integrate that unexplainable into the simulation. (BTW sorry for misspelling consciousness all the time in my post above - it was a little too late here)
- lttlrck 10y ago
  Really interesting. Imagination/visualization would be enabled by this simulation. For example I can visualize what is obscured by a wall.

vectorpush 10y ago

Perhaps the supercomputer does experience a kind of proto-consciousness.

mh-cx 10y ago
Right, as far as I understand it that's also close to how Tononi's and Koch's Integrated Information Theory[1] try to explain conscious phenomena. In their parlance the computer would have a low value of phi. I was surprised that this theory is not even mentioned in the article, even though Aaronson has quite some opinion on it.[2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory [2] http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799 http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1799