Say we discover (somehow) that it's actually impossible to simulate a human-level conscious mind on inorganic substrate. What did we discover?
(e.g. we're running in a simulation, and a resolution limit prematurely halts Moore's Law; etc)
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It’s hard to imagine what that discovery would look like. It’s impossible so far, but impossible, period? How would we know?
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Perhaps the same way we know that it's not possible to simultaneously specify both the position and momentum of a particle.
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I’d think the limiting factor here would be rigorously defining what “consciousness” means to a similar level of precision as “momentum.” Is there a definition we’d agree on?
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Replying to @bobpoekert
It's a good question! I'm not quite sure, so I'll pose a weak frame: suppose we discover (positively) that there is some reason why an inorganic computational system could never "seem" (to all humans) to behave with human-like conscious agency. What must be true of such a world?


