>The Day I got Reincarnated as a Smartphone
The Anime
What is it like to be a smartphone?
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say they die. There's not really a better analog in biology. Even in the case of sexual reproduction, the new life carries tons of epigenetic state across the creation boundary, and is more akin to fork(2) than exec(2). A ceasing of operations and erasure of all current state seems more like death to me.
>A ceasing of operations and erasure of all current state seems more like death to me. but some state is preserved in non-volatile memory.
Amnesia of everything but carefully written. Rebirth.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd say they die. There's not really a better analog in biology. Even in the case of sexual reproduction, the new life carries tons of epigenetic state across the creation boundary, and is more akin to fork(2) than exec(2). A ceasing of operations and erasure of all current state seems more like death to me.
What you're illustrating here is that "awake", "asleep", "death", and "life", are pretty terrible metaphors for states our computers exist in. Saying my laptop is "asleep" when it's suspended is verbally cromulent, no one would be confused by what I meant. But the metaphor breaks down badly on any attempt to extend it. Even if I brick it, I have the option to purchase fresh equipment and restore from the most recent…
It is a clone. The original one is dead. Works for teleportation too.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#54There are a lot of potholes in the roads. The guy who wrote this should get a shovel and go and fill in some potholes and so finally make a contribution to humanity.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#55Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you're illustrating here is that "awake", "asleep", "death", and "life", are pretty terrible metaphors for states our computers exist in. Saying my laptop is "asleep" when it's suspended is verbally cromulent, no one would be confused by what I meant. But the metaphor breaks down badly on any attempt to extend it. Even if I brick it, I have the option to purchase fresh equipment and restore from the most recent…
It is a clone. The original one is dead. Works for teleportation too.
and time travel. O'Brien must suffer.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#57Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
I studied dogs quite a bit (informal academia (course audits, etc)), and I firmly believe they domesticated us instead of the other way around.
Please tell us more
I think the relationship is more of a symbiotic one, like wheat.
On the other hand, we get to pick the meaning of "domestication", and I believe the definition leans heavily on the traits a domesticated dog exhibits, so there is not much to discuss here.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
100%. I disagree with the article in that there’s nothing inherently mysterious or “hard” (like the “hard” problem of consciousness) in the inner machinations of a smartphone. In the inner machinations of a mind, yes, but not in a smartphone. Everything that goes on within it is designed and controlled and can be explained by a human. Large networks, e.g. the brain or the Internet, on the other hand, are exponentiall…
I largely agree with you, but answer the reducibility problem. At what point does a network become complex enough to form consciousness? I think the writer of this article likely believes that there is no such point, that all information processing is consciously experienced phenomenon on a sliding scale of complexity
When it understands that it is a network and can rework itself and its surroundings, working as a homogenous unit interacting with its environment.
Re: What is it like to be a smartphone?
#60What is it like to be the Internet? That structure resembles our brain: a reactive, resilient, shifting network of connections among billions of individual human brains using smartphones and other technological devices, storing, aggregating and routing information in complex and arbitrary ways. If consciousness is to be found in our technology, I wouldn't look at the individual smartphone, but at the network of all s…
100%. I disagree with the article in that there’s nothing inherently mysterious or “hard” (like the “hard” problem of consciousness) in the inner machinations of a smartphone. In the inner machinations of a mind, yes, but not in a smartphone. Everything that goes on within it is designed and controlled and can be explained by a human. Large networks, e.g. the brain or the Internet, on the other hand, are exponentiall…
I often hear AI researchers say that AI behaviours can only be explained in limited cases, not in general.
I’d be surprised if there is anything that it’s like to be a smartphone, or even an AI running in a smartphone, but I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.