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The problem with this line of thinking is that any data model for anything has absolutely no intrinsic meaning. It's just an encoding. To give the simplest exa
by hasenj 10y ago
The problem with this line of thinking is that any data model for anything has absolutely no intrinsic meaning. It's just an encoding.
To give the simplest example: you can model a color in many different encodings, 'red', 'hsl(0, 50%, 50%)', 'rgb(255, 0, 0)', etc.
Any "thing" can be encoded in an infinitely different number of ways. The same applies to the state of your mind. Why should one encoding give rise to consciousness?
Arguably, the manner in which water is flowing within a sewage pipe network could be interpreted to be encoding some kind of information. Would you argue that some particular arrangement of water flow within a pipe network could give rise to consciousness?
I think there's a difference between a system modelling itself and becoming conscious of itself.
Any system can model itself. We can do it easily with computers. Arguably the linux kernel has a model of itself, its hardware, its inputs, etc. That doesn't make it conscious.
- dwaltrip 10y agoComputers don't model much at all, let alone themselves. They run static, one-off code that was fed to them by external sources, and contain no coherent, dynamic models of real world systems. My dog models more of the world than any computer we've yet built. Sure, some computer programs model specific things quite well. But these models are very limited, fixed, and useless without human interpretation.
- hasenj 10y ago> these models are very limited, fixed, and useless without human interpretation. What model _isn't_ useless without human interpretation?
- dwaltrip 10y agoThe models of the world inside the brain of many different animals. They sustain themselves Even the models of the world in our own brains are not fully known to us, and we largely make use of them without interpretation. Basically, any model that wasn't created by humans does not need human interpretation.
- hasenj 10y agoThat's a circular argument. You're just assuming that these models have intrinsic meaning.