5 ms·
> I don’t know what the experience of a bit in memory flipping feels like. The "feeling" could only be "experienced" via an enormous number of other "bits" fli
by knodi123 3y ago
> I don’t know what the experience of a bit in memory flipping feels like.
The "feeling" could only be "experienced" via an enormous number of other "bits" flipping.
Neurons don't feel pain- they are how you experience pain.
I've heard the phrase "don't confuse the medium with the message", but this is like wondering if a pencil prefers writing fiction vs non fiction.
- odyssey7 3y agoIt's possible that every component of an organism is recursively its own sentient system. In symbiosis, each component's first-person experience directs coordinating behavior for mutual benefit, though each component may be unable to observe the first-person experience of the other.
- knodi123 3y agoThat's "possible" in the same way that wizards and vampires are possible - sure, I can't prove it's fake, but there's not a shred of evidence, plus it would upset everything we've learned about the universe.
- odyssey7 3y agoCells, tissues, and organs undertake a variety of self-maintenance behaviors without the direction of the brain. Although low-level behaviors like these are abundant, high-level examples also exist, like when an arm pulls away from a hot stove as soon as the signal reaches the spinal cord. The organism is a recursive system, with sub-systems behaving with varying degrees of autonomy while also depending on the larger system. The seat of consciousness possesses only a limited view.
- jchanimal 3y agoYou can use this approach to make complex behavior from simple rules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsumption_architecture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsumption_architecture
- knodi123 3y agoThat's not sentience. That's just life. Neurons do not have a brain. They do not have emotions or feelings or thoughts. This conversation is so absurd that it's well into the realm of fantasy.
- odyssey7 3y agoWhat causes a neuron to perform its functions if it isn't some brain? The answer would likely be physics, and I would say that first-person experience is fundamental in the physics if it exists at all.
- holoduke 3y agoOr somekind of electrical system, acting as a software layer on top of the hardware (neurons) layer. This electrical thing is what controls and orchestrates everything and also is our ego.
- anigbrowl 3y agoNeurons may not 'feel' pain per se, but it's entirely possible that the biological substrate on a chip would experience pain on some subset of the pin inputs, say if it recognized a condition that reliably led to a shutdown and reboot of the chip. I'm not against this sort of research, but we shouldn't make assumptions about systems that we still understand relatively poorly.
- knodi123 3y ago> it's entirely possible that the biological substrate on a chip would experience pain on some subset of the pin inputs Absolutely, but the guy I responded to suggested that "all physical processes involve a sensory component", which is utter insanity.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoIn quantum mechanics the act of observing always disturbs the observed; it's reasonable to call these disturbances 'senses' in the copenhagen interpretation of reality.
- Bjartr 3y agoThe term "observation" in explaining quantum mechanics is misleading and a layperson analogy, not the underlying reality which is closer to "inter-system interaction" or "interaction between a quantum system and its environment". No conscious observation necessary.
- mensetmanusman 3y agoInteraction is also an analogy for what the mystery really is.