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Panpsychism is a serious philosophical position.

The_rationalist 6y ago
Could you please give an explanation of panpsychism applied to software that make sense? Spoiler: you cannot and it's totally refuted empirically. If I code a hello world, what kind of cognitive abilities does this have? BTW I guess panpsychism researchers should start talking to rocks maybe one day they'll find one that is an AGI! /s
- plutonorm 6y ago
  "Could you please give an explanation of panpsychism applied to software that make sense? Spoiler: you cannot and it's totally refuted empirically. If I code a hello world, what kind of cognitive abilities does this have?" You aren't making any sense, go read about the things you are talking about.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - The_rationalist 6y ago
    Panpsychists posit that the type of mentality we know through our own experience is present, in some form, in a wide range of natural bodies.[7] Panpsychism assert the nonsensical belief that any physical object (an atom, a rock, a cpu) have some undefined, variable cognitive abilities + eventually qualias. So what I'm saying about panpsychism applied to the current state of a cpu through software make as much sense (or nonsense) as about a rock. I've read and quoted the definition, now please show that you have a working brain
    - dang 6y ago
      Personal attacks will get you banned on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting.
  - dang 6y ago
    Personal attacks will get you banned on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting.
- MacsHeadroom 6y ago
  The position is that information not physical matter is ontologically primary and that substrate independent integrated information processing is identical to consciousness. A hello world program and a rock are not integrated information processing systems. The former is an automata which can be contained in an integrated information processing systems and the latter is a more arbitrary construct which does very little information processing at all (much less integrated).
  - bnlapp 6y ago
    Sounds like the ether in physics around 1900 or the four elements in Greek philosophy. Non-falsifiable dreams.
- mattkrause 6y ago
  Suppose there’s a highly-detailed molecular dynamics simulation of every atom in your brain: every ion channel in every neuron, any neurotransmitters wafting about, and whatever other mechanisms might be relevant (ephaptic coupling?) for good measure. This would be frightfully expensive to build and run (BlueBrain blew billions on a very stripped down version)l Nevertheless, it’s not obvious to me that this MD model wouldn’t “think” in the same way you do.
  - The_rationalist 6y ago
    The simulation you describe, if precise enough is isomorphic to a real brain so obviously it's tautologic that it would think the same way as the real brain do (qualias aside). But panpsychism apply to anything, e.g a rock. And your statement does not apply to a standard neural network.

Could you please give an explanation of panpsychism applied to software that make sense? Spoiler: you cannot and it's totally refuted empirically. If I code a hello world, what kind of cognitive abilities does this have? BTW I guess panpsychism researchers should start talking to rocks maybe one day they'll find one that is an AGI! /s

plutonorm 6y ago
"Could you please give an explanation of panpsychism applied to software that make sense? Spoiler: you cannot and it's totally refuted empirically. If I code a hello world, what kind of cognitive abilities does this have?" You aren't making any sense, go read about the things you are talking about.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- The_rationalist 6y ago
  Panpsychists posit that the type of mentality we know through our own experience is present, in some form, in a wide range of natural bodies.[7] Panpsychism assert the nonsensical belief that any physical object (an atom, a rock, a cpu) have some undefined, variable cognitive abilities + eventually qualias. So what I'm saying about panpsychism applied to the current state of a cpu through software make as much sense (or nonsense) as about a rock. I've read and quoted the definition, now please show that you have a working brain
  - dang 6y ago
    Personal attacks will get you banned on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting.
- dang 6y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned on HN. Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting.
MacsHeadroom 6y ago
The position is that information not physical matter is ontologically primary and that substrate independent integrated information processing is identical to consciousness. A hello world program and a rock are not integrated information processing systems. The former is an automata which can be contained in an integrated information processing systems and the latter is a more arbitrary construct which does very little information processing at all (much less integrated).
- bnlapp 6y ago
  Sounds like the ether in physics around 1900 or the four elements in Greek philosophy. Non-falsifiable dreams.
mattkrause 6y ago
Suppose there’s a highly-detailed molecular dynamics simulation of every atom in your brain: every ion channel in every neuron, any neurotransmitters wafting about, and whatever other mechanisms might be relevant (ephaptic coupling?) for good measure. This would be frightfully expensive to build and run (BlueBrain blew billions on a very stripped down version)l Nevertheless, it’s not obvious to me that this MD model wouldn’t “think” in the same way you do.
- The_rationalist 6y ago
  The simulation you describe, if precise enough is isomorphic to a real brain so obviously it's tautologic that it would think the same way as the real brain do (qualias aside). But panpsychism apply to anything, e.g a rock. And your statement does not apply to a standard neural network.