11–20 of 133 posts
This article doesn't actually explain Dust Theory to someone who hasn't read the book. I haven't found a good standalone explanation of the theory that explains it in a compact manner so my recommendation to people is to read the book. Permutation City is among my top 5 favorite books because I found Dust Theory so mind blowingly amazing from a philosophical standpoint. I haven't seen it discussed elsewhere outside t…
He lost me right in the second paragraph: > Because computation is sort of subjective, just a set of relations that can be usefully interpreted as representing a function, this seems to imply that the function you identify with can be interpreted as being simulated by any sufficiently complex set of relations. Can anyone explain? I'm already struggling with the premise: Why should computation be subjective in the fir…
Edit: I think we're being trolled by a text generator, see my other comment.
He lost me right in the second paragraph: > Because computation is sort of subjective, just a set of relations that can be usefully interpreted as representing a function, this seems to imply that the function you identify with can be interpreted as being simulated by any sufficiently complex set of relations. Can anyone explain? I'm already struggling with the premise: Why should computation be subjective in the fir…
> If you think experience is simulatable, [and] you buy computational or “patternist” theories of identity…
Basically, the inner experience of any sapient computation (aka "person") is subjective.
A while ago I wrote up my own take, inspired largely by Permutation City but also by Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis: https://blog.domenic.me/mathematical-consciousness/ To me this line of thinking is very attractive. As someone who has been a mathematical Platonist forever, this gives a very satisfying answer to big questions like "why is there something instead of nothing" and "why is our universe so per…
A projection like that seems very likely to break consciousness. Writing down the state of a computer onto a paper does not allow the paper to continue the computation.
I don't know the original theory, but this explanation is brief to the point where it's nonsensical.
"Nonetheless, It is because of my faith in science and its processes that I have always been of the opinion that the state pension, though grisly from a naive “one-worlder” perspective is actually a remarkably humane, efficient and (dare I say) generous social program."
and if you look at the home link https://cephalopods.blog/about/ anyone else think that looks like a generated face?
Not that I'd want him to dumb it down, but explanations are appreciated.
This idea seems identical to the Boltzmann brain hypothesis and I don't understand how this paragraph differentiates it at all.
Looking at other stuff ISTM this is generated by one of them newfangled GPT3 things or whatever: "Nonetheless, It is because of my faith in science and its processes that I have always been of the opinion that the state pension, though grisly from a naive “one-worlder” perspective is actually a remarkably humane, efficient and (dare I say) generous social program." ( https://cephalopods.blog/ ) and if you look at the…
More importantly, it's a new face every time you reload the page.