I didn’t misspeak, even though the argument I gave wasn’t the exact same one that Eliezer gave it is essentially the exact same argument. The “rinse, repeat” was meant to suggest you keep going with it ad infinitum, and the very next step I came up with was the exact same as Eliezer’s. It’s a reference to washing directions on shampoo bottles, and I’ve honestly never had anyone get confused by it, so I apologize.
The point is, if the thing looking up the inputs (to continue where I left off) isn’t conscious, then the thing that created the thing that looks up the inputs is probably conscious. If the thing that created the thing that created the GLUT isn’t conscious (e.g. a true random code generator that happens to produce the GLUT that matches our universe) then the thing that chose that GLUT out of the multitude of others is probably conscious. This is exactly Eliezer’s argument, unless I have completely misunderstood it, and if I have I would love to be corrected (I’ve only been actively engaged in this kind of thinking for a little over a year now, so I’m still very much a newbie). As it is, I don’t see what is different in principal between my point and Eliezer’s.
My point was in regards to Roland’s argument, which was that he didn’t mind the GLUT being consciousness in his Zombie World. I was attempting to point out that if the GLUT is conscious then the anti-zombie principle is automatically validated on the grounds that it’s not a Zombie World in that case.
In order for epiphenomenalists to effectively argue the Zombie World using a GLUT, it cannot be conscious itself. Eliezer argued (in a nutshell) that if there was a conscious mind behind the creation of the GLUT, then the GLUT was simply a tool of the conscious mind, and that the GLUT wasn’t actually running things, the consciousness behind it was. This is true regardless of where in the process the consciousness is, the point is that it is there somewhere and has a meaningful affect on the universe it exists in. Any world that his this kind of connection to a consciousness by definition can’t be a real Zombie World.
If consciousness has no affect on the universe then it is meaningless. This has been my understanding of Eliezer’s position throughout this entire series.
I didn’t misspeak, even though the argument I gave wasn’t the exact same one that Eliezer gave it is essentially the exact same argument. The “rinse, repeat” was meant to suggest you keep going with it ad infinitum, and the very next step I came up with was the exact same as Eliezer’s. It’s a reference to washing directions on shampoo bottles, and I’ve honestly never had anyone get confused by it, so I apologize.
The point is, if the thing looking up the inputs (to continue where I left off) isn’t conscious, then the thing that created the thing that looks up the inputs is probably conscious. If the thing that created the thing that created the GLUT isn’t conscious (e.g. a true random code generator that happens to produce the GLUT that matches our universe) then the thing that chose that GLUT out of the multitude of others is probably conscious. This is exactly Eliezer’s argument, unless I have completely misunderstood it, and if I have I would love to be corrected (I’ve only been actively engaged in this kind of thinking for a little over a year now, so I’m still very much a newbie). As it is, I don’t see what is different in principal between my point and Eliezer’s.
My point was in regards to Roland’s argument, which was that he didn’t mind the GLUT being consciousness in his Zombie World. I was attempting to point out that if the GLUT is conscious then the anti-zombie principle is automatically validated on the grounds that it’s not a Zombie World in that case.
In order for epiphenomenalists to effectively argue the Zombie World using a GLUT, it cannot be conscious itself. Eliezer argued (in a nutshell) that if there was a conscious mind behind the creation of the GLUT, then the GLUT was simply a tool of the conscious mind, and that the GLUT wasn’t actually running things, the consciousness behind it was. This is true regardless of where in the process the consciousness is, the point is that it is there somewhere and has a meaningful affect on the universe it exists in. Any world that his this kind of connection to a consciousness by definition can’t be a real Zombie World.
If consciousness has no affect on the universe then it is meaningless. This has been my understanding of Eliezer’s position throughout this entire series.