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assertion: consciousness == processing information. This is a functional view of consciousness. Awareness - sentience - follows when the system of processing
by altruios 18d ago
assertion: consciousness == processing information.
This is a functional view of consciousness.
Awareness - sentience - follows when the system of processing information is itself part of the information being processed.
Stochastic thoughts relating to this conclusion:
Life is a 'process', it doesn't have a 'physical representation'.
Life is generated entirely from non-living material. "oh my cells are alive", but those cells too when broken down into component parts consist entirely of non-living material. There is no 'special material' to make life out of (okay, carbon, but that's just the local maximum presumed global maximum in efficiency in expressing life) like a chair can be made out of any material (at proper pressures and temperatures) so too can a mind.
- pamcake 18d agoWith that assertion, every running PC has consciousness and a self-bootstrapping compiler or a debugger attached to itself are sentient? Doesn't seem meaningful.
- altruios 17d ago> debugger attached to itself are sentient? No standard debugger is capable of being attached to it's own instance. Nor does a self-bootstrapping compiler point towards it's own instance. I think from these two examples I should clarify: A process that processes itself as an input, is definitionally self-aware.