X-Message-Number: 11680 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: reply to Mike Perry, on consciousness in virtual people Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 22:41:02 +1000 (EST) This is an answer to Mike Perry: You seem to believe that the notion that we are emulations in a computer already has some value, even though there is no experimental evidence for that idea. I will be stronger here: just what difference does this notion have from the belief that there is a God (or gods)? Those who like theology are welcome to it, but it does not become less theological if we believe in a Programmer rather than a God. Again you do not believe that a character in a book can be conscious. And you do give a reason: such characters are not interacting with anything. Suppose I have a program which contains, first, an emulation of the world, and second, one or more emulated people living in that emulation. If I am not running the program at time 1, but running it at time 0, are these emulated people conscious only when I run the program? I'll point out that I did not just ask if characters in books were conscious, but also asked for an answer to the question of whether or not they were ONCE conscious. I am asking the same for this program. Basically, since our emulation of the world cannot be very good, it seems to me that we cannot consider virtual beings in that emulation as conscious. You seem to believe that ANY character in a computer emulation (even just the kind in a computer game) must have awareness because that character is in some sense active. I will say that in such cases you do not have an active character, you have a program which gives you images and statements. The same happens no matter how complex your program and your virtual characters. What are your boundaries? Why is it that a virtual machine in a computer game (ie. a car or an airplane) is not conscious, but the characters are? In both cases the object or character is active. Please explain just what characteristics make a virtual object in a computer program aware or not. Best and long long life, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11680