Mitchell isn’t asking you to explain anything. He’s asking you to predict (effectively) what would happen, consciousness-wise, given a randomly generated GLUT. There is a fact of the matter as to what would happen in that situation (in the same sense, whatever that may be, that there are facts about consciousness in normal situations), and a complete theory will be able to say what it is; the best you can say is that you don’t currently have a theory that covers that situation (or that the situation is underspecified; maybe it depends on what sort of randomizer you use, or something).
There is a fact of the matter as to what would happen in that situation (in the same sense, whatever that may be, that there are facts about consciousness in normal situations), and a complete theory will be able to say what it is; the best you can say is that you don’t currently have a theory that covers that situation.
My theory does cover that situation; it says the GLUT will not be conscious. It also says that situation will not happen, because GLUTs that act like people come from entanglement with people. Things that don’t actually happen are allowed to violate general rules about things that do happen.
Okay. Why did you bother bringing up the tentacle, or the section you quoted from Eliezer’s post? Why insist on the improbability of a hypothetical when “least convenient possible world” has already been called?
Because I was challenging the applicability of Least Convenient Possible Worlds to this discussion. It is a fully general (and invalid) argument against any theory T to say take this event A that T says is super improbable and suppose that (in the Least Convenient Possible World) A happens, which is overwhelming evidence against T. The tentacle arm replacement is one such event that would contradict a lot of theories. Would you ask someone defending the theory that their body does not drastically change overnight to consider the Least Convenient Possible World where they do wake up with a tentacle instead of an arm?
Mitchell isn’t asking you to explain anything. He’s asking you to predict (effectively) what would happen, consciousness-wise, given a randomly generated GLUT. There is a fact of the matter as to what would happen in that situation (in the same sense, whatever that may be, that there are facts about consciousness in normal situations), and a complete theory will be able to say what it is; the best you can say is that you don’t currently have a theory that covers that situation (or that the situation is underspecified; maybe it depends on what sort of randomizer you use, or something).
My theory does cover that situation; it says the GLUT will not be conscious. It also says that situation will not happen, because GLUTs that act like people come from entanglement with people. Things that don’t actually happen are allowed to violate general rules about things that do happen.
Okay. Why did you bother bringing up the tentacle, or the section you quoted from Eliezer’s post? Why insist on the improbability of a hypothetical when “least convenient possible world” has already been called?
Because I was challenging the applicability of Least Convenient Possible Worlds to this discussion. It is a fully general (and invalid) argument against any theory T to say take this event A that T says is super improbable and suppose that (in the Least Convenient Possible World) A happens, which is overwhelming evidence against T. The tentacle arm replacement is one such event that would contradict a lot of theories. Would you ask someone defending the theory that their body does not drastically change overnight to consider the Least Convenient Possible World where they do wake up with a tentacle instead of an arm?