Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jmoss20 1198 days ago
The problem with this view is Hilary Putnam's "a rock implements every finite state automata". (Nicely explained, with a rebuttal in [0].)

It's an attractive idea that some thing has agency (or consciousness, or whatever property you want to define) to the extent it does some sort of computation. But then you have to go figure out what it means for something to do that computation. That turns out to be extremely difficult; most things can be interpreted as computing most other things.

[0]: https://philpapers.org/rec/CHADAR
1 comments
didntreadarticl 1198 days ago
most things can be interpreted as computing most other things

Chalmers paper is behind a paywall but I dont see how your point makes any sense. A rock is not processing anything, an insect or a person or a calculator is. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

The states that Putnam argues are happening inside the rock dont mean anything unless some action results from them. You'll notice I mentioned 'actions as a result of processing' above.

link
Timon3 1198 days ago
Imagine a beam of light hitting a prism. What comes out on the other side is a Fourier transform of the incoming light. Did the prism do a computation? If you say no, how about if I place photo detectors on the other side and measure the result - did I build a computer that does not do computations?
link
didntreadarticl 1198 days ago
If its doing something with the result of the photon detectors, then yes I guess its processing the input and taking some action as a result. Bonus points if the incoming beam or light actually means something (e.g. perhaps it varies when something gets in the way). Congratulations you imagined a processor
link
jmoss20 1198 days ago
What if I hook some (very hypothetical) actuators up to the rock?

Surely the /concept/ doesn't depend on us having the tech to make such actuators...

link
didntreadarticl 1198 days ago
Cmon guys, rocks arent processors, whatever Putnam may say

Unless you're into panpsychism - which I can't discount because although its a ridiculous explanation of consciousness, all the other possible explanations are equally ridiculous

link