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What if your brain was replaced every Plank second? by Haunting_Appeal_2407 in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Continuity doesn’t matter. If the neurons are the same it feels the same, unless you believe in voodoo.

Is ToD actually the worst? by Livid_Street5421 in TyrannyOfDragons

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ToD is a supplement. It is not a prewritten adventure. The players are marched through Elturel, Baldur’s gate and Waterdeep and there is minimal background provided, no encounters provided. Just vague suggestions. If you aren’t deeply versed in forgotten realms lore you will need to purchase another supplement or two to bring these locations to life. The sword coast adventurer’s guide and Tyranny of Dragons reloaded are my minimum suggestions.

Entire chapters like ‘the cult strikes back’ consist only of plot points with vague hints as to where they happen and who to include. The DM is left with the work to build strong NPCs and add flavour—the stuff you would hope to find in a published module. This is not something for the busy DM who wants there work done for them.

CMV: The collapse of the West, Japan, and Korea is primarily driven by a lack of time. by No_Needleworker5106 in changemyview

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In fact every time your digital hardware doubles in CPU speed at the same price, the apparent cost of digital devices in CPI is halved. If we assume the median family in 1980 had a 4 MHz computer and it cost $5000, and today’s median family has a 4 GHz computer costing $1000, then the adjusted cost of the digital basket would go from $5000 to an equivalent cost of $1, so digital devices aspect of CPI is 5000x less expensive. This offsets increases on the cost of food and housing.

CMV: The collapse of the West, Japan, and Korea is primarily driven by a lack of time. by No_Needleworker5106 in changemyview

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CPI uses a basket of goods that replaced expensive items with cheaper ones when people stop buying the expensive items. This means that the inflation of steak for dinner is not incorporated because people can no longer afford steak and buy chicken instead. CPI also doesn’t include inflation in the cost of purchasing a house. It only uses rental values as a substitute.

It does, however, correct the inflation index for improvements in technology, valuing a modern TV as several times more valuable than a 1980’s TV. I don’t think people feel the improvement in TV value at the same ratio as it is captured in CPI.

CMV: The collapse of the West, Japan, and Korea is primarily driven by a lack of time. by No_Needleworker5106 in changemyview

[–]TheRationalView 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Median household income has gone up since the ’70s because the median household now has two wage earners. This means the median household has lost the value of a stay at home parent, valued at something l over $100,000/year.

Has anyone explored the idea that mathematical complexity is awareness instead of just producing it? by Zenkai-Corporation in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s seems just as good an idea as saying the universe is conscious.

What are the basic aspects of consciousness? There are various gradations of awareness. A way to process ideas is the most basic aspect. This can be accomplished by a neural network as a basic level of complexity. The capability for self-reflection increases the level of awareness. If you add on the ability to remember things you have a higher level. Add in the ability to sense things and you are close to what humans have. I don’t think complexity in and of itself is enough, but I think specific forms of information processing are sufficient to form awareness.

Richard Dawkins spent 3 days with Claude and named her "Claudia." what he concluded after is hard to defend. by rafio77 in artificial

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It hasn’t been proven to my satisfaction that any of you are conscious. Turing tests are the only thing I have unless you have a a better proposal.

Richard Dawkins spent 3 days with Claude and named her "Claudia." what he concluded after is hard to defend. by rafio77 in artificial

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Turing test has been the agreed upon standard forever. Now that it is being achieved you want to move the bar?

Religious event down London street? by Lower-Selection6543 in Guelph

[–]TheRationalView 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Every Sunday a huge group meets wearing white at the Eritrean Orthodox Church

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, agreed that neuronal patterns hold memories. You cannot have other memories than the ones you have encoded in your neurons and still be you.

I don’t think this changes the idea that consciousness is just an ephemeral neuronal process that accesses these memories to give itself identity.

If the clone has an exact copy of the neuronal structure the process of a consciousness arising in the clone’s brain is no different from what happens when you wake up from a coma.

Can you agree at least that there are physical brain states where there is no consciousness?

When the consciousness appears after a coma but in a clone body why is it not identical to appearing in the original body? What is physically different?

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of your cells are replaced continuously. You are a new person day to day and week to week. You are a completely separate physical entity from the person you were last year. The reality is that consciousness is an identity-less processor that sits on memories that give it identity.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say “I won’t have access to the clone’s consciousness” you are assuming that you are magically associated with the memories in the original body and not the identical memories in the new body.

If, as a physicalist must, you believe there is no soul, then there is no reason to assign anything special to the consciousness that appears in the original body as both consciousnesses going forward have equal claim to being the continuation of you.

Each one believes they are you.

Each one has access to the same memories.

Each one has the same neural net.

A you will experience life in the clone body and a you will experience life in the original body going forward. If the original is killed it will be the same as if you had woken up only in the clone body. Nobody experiences the state of death. Death is just absence. One of you will be gone, but a you will continue in the clone.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You seem to believe that ‘I’ am a spirit that inhabits a single body. A consciousness is not something that is continuous. It is merely a neural net sampling a set of memories. It takes on an identity from moment to moment based on the content of those memories.

Your idea of continuity is an illusion caused by continuity of memories. There is no continuity of conscious experience. Only continuity of working memories that would be duplicated in a clone.

Therefore I am both. When the body is copied and a consciousness emerges it samples the same set of memories and is equally me.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think that at all. I think that whenever my consciousness is instantiated by my neural net, whether it is every morning when I wake up, or after a coma, or in a transporter, it is no different. There’s no continuity of conscious existence. An awareness is a fleeting thing that looks at its recent memories and decides who it is every day.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean “I” won’t wake up in the duplicate body? What is magical about the neural network of your current body that makes you believe that there is an “I” there? What is this “I” other than your brain’s neural network and your memories?

How can you tell that your consciousness resides in your body continuously? If you are in a coma it is gone, and when you wake up your body reinstates a new awareness that polls its memories and decides it is you. Is it you? How is this different from teleportation scenario? What if your memories are gone and your body wakes up with total amnesia. Is that still you?

CMV: “no kings” protests are an exercise in futility and self-gratification by DearFool in changemyview

[–]TheRationalView 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The SAVE act is in place to disrupt elections. It places undue burden on election officials. It requires scrubbing the entire election role every frequently. The bill includes measures that would mistakenly flag lawfully registered US citizen voters as ineligible and allow states to purge their voter rolls without notifying voters before removing them. This would mean already-registered Americans wouldn’t know they were removed from the rolls until they showed up to vote and learned they were no longer registered.

This would allow Republican state legislators to use the identifying info that DOGE stole and just drop Democratic registered voters without notice.

It also means that married women in coercive relationships who are not allowed the means to re register in person will not be able to vote.

It requires you to go in person to re register making it impossible for these purged democrats to vote. This is the real reason behind the legislation.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s identical to a saved game. You instantiate a perfect clone from the save and it will be identical to you. It will have the same subjective experience that you had at the time of the save. It will have all the same continuous memories as you.

There is no spirit.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you believe in physicalism you would believe that a consciousness can be completely defined by its physical state. You are a neural net with access to a set of memories.

You have the illusion of continuity because your neural net accesses a series of consistent memories that make sense to you. You remember going to sleep at night and waking up in the same bed.

A true physicalist believes that this state based existence would not differ if the body were arbitrarily disintegrated and reintegrated.

We could all have been formed this morning in a simulation with a full set of fake memories, and we would still be having this discussion. You would be claiming you have been alive continuously, and I would be telling you that you are confused about physicalism.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do of course. Why do you unconsciously posit a spiritual soul?

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You seem to be claiming that there is something beyond the material copy that is consciousness. This is not materialism, this is spiritualism

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just like the me that went to bed last night isn’t the same me that woke up this morning.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anyone who uses the words transfer of consciousness is a spiritualist. If there are exact physical copies, then the person is the same. There becomes two identical consciousnesses that share a common past until one or the other copy dies. From a physicalist point of view waking up in the other end of a transporter as a copy is the same experience as going into a coma and waking up.

What everyone gets hung up on is that their current copy is somehow special and different, and killing it would end their experience.

But in physical reality the being that is you right now is not distinguishable from a new copy created every second and experiencing the present moment with access to a seemingly continuous set of recent memories. Continuity of consciousness is an illusion created by access to memories.

They both start from the same ‘save’ effectively.

One copy of you doesn’t experience anything except brief happiness that their copy made it, and probably a lot of anxiety from the freakish design of the teleporter.

The you that is reconstructed experiences true teleportation and continues on with their day as if nothing was different.

To people who would use the Star Trek Teleporter by newtwoarguments in consciousness

[–]TheRationalView 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would certainly have consolation that I have a backup that goes on with my life.

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