3 ms·

But if its a software, then how and where is it stored and where is the execution logic for it?

by Ralfp 3y ago

4ad 3y ago
> how and where is it stored I don't know, but it doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter if the code on your computer is on a HDD or SSD. > and where is the execution logic for it? I don't know, but it doesn't matter either. It's a question about the workings of the computer, not of the software. Electronic computers make it really easy to separate the software from the hardware, and make it easy to dump the software in some other representation in order to understand it. When I want to understand a piece of code, I read its source code, I don't care about whether it's an amd64 or an arm64 CPU and the details of the encoding unless I am working on a compiler. With biological computers it's much harder to dump the software. But nevertheless, until people realize that this is what they should attempt, or research how it can be done, I feel we won't make any progress on the nature of consciousness.
- vehemenz 3y ago
  I don’t think there’s any guarantee that such a distinction should be evident, let alone obvious in human brains. Modern computers are for general purpose computing, whereas brains and analog computers are highly specialized.
- Ralfp 3y ago
  > I don't know, but it doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter if the code on your computer is on a HDD or SSD. But it does matter! You arbitrarily dismiss the brain as "wrong level of abstraction" then bring up the computer which internals we know and understand as an example of parallel system. If both are same, where's the hard drive in the brain? Which part of the brain is the CPU dedicated to consciousness? We know regions of brain are specialized in function, like the computers. > But nevertheless, until people realize that this is what they should attempt, or research how it can be done, I feel we won't make any progress on the nature of consciousness. This reminds me of the famous Andy Grove's fallacy. To paraphrase: The engineers tend to apply knowledge and concepts of their field to biology because they think both engineered and organic systems are the same. In doing so they miss the elementary difference that engineering is about creation and development of new systems, and biology is about researching and understanding existing systems we have no prior knowledge of.

But if its a software, then how and where is it stored and where is the execution logic for it?

by Ralfp 3y ago

But if its a software, then how and where is it stored and where is the execution logic for it?

4ad 3y ago

> how and where is it stored I don't know, but it doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter if the code on your computer is on a HDD or SSD. > and where is the execution logic for it? I don't know, but it doesn't matter either. It's a question about the workings of the computer, not of the software. Electronic computers make it really easy to separate the software from the hardware, and make it easy to dump the software in some other representation in order to understand it. When I want to understand a piece of code, I read its source code, I don't care about whether it's an amd64 or an arm64 CPU and the details of the encoding unless I am working on a compiler. With biological computers it's much harder to dump the software. But nevertheless, until people realize that this is what they should attempt, or research how it can be done, I feel we won't make any progress on the nature of consciousness.

vehemenz 3y ago
I don’t think there’s any guarantee that such a distinction should be evident, let alone obvious in human brains. Modern computers are for general purpose computing, whereas brains and analog computers are highly specialized.
Ralfp 3y ago
> I don't know, but it doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter if the code on your computer is on a HDD or SSD. But it does matter! You arbitrarily dismiss the brain as "wrong level of abstraction" then bring up the computer which internals we know and understand as an example of parallel system. If both are same, where's the hard drive in the brain? Which part of the brain is the CPU dedicated to consciousness? We know regions of brain are specialized in function, like the computers. > But nevertheless, until people realize that this is what they should attempt, or research how it can be done, I feel we won't make any progress on the nature of consciousness. This reminds me of the famous Andy Grove's fallacy. To paraphrase: The engineers tend to apply knowledge and concepts of their field to biology because they think both engineered and organic systems are the same. In doing so they miss the elementary difference that engineering is about creation and development of new systems, and biology is about researching and understanding existing systems we have no prior knowledge of.