We are no different than computers

[emjay]

Thanks Rhythm. Clearly I'm starting to get a bit confused by all of this but just because I don't have much of an idea of the principles of electronic circuits. That article I linked to covers them but I read it mainly looking at the stuff relating to neurons - the rest was to come later when I studied it in depth. Even your last line didn't make much sense until I looked up transistors and found it talking about 'vacuum tubes' as being their predecessors. So now that idea of neurons as being an advanced form of transistor, which is an understandable way of looking at it now that I know what they are, puts another spin on the whole thing: if each neuron represents a transistor in a circuit then these logic gates only need a small number of neurons each and therefore there can be a lot more than I had envisaged. And there couldn't really be different 'parallel' arrangements in the way I had imagined either because the neurons are 'wired' in a certain way even without comp mind... in other words I think you're saying that comp mind would still use the same physical layout of the neurons, and their connectivity, just when viewing neurons also as transistors it opens up the possibility of looking at neural networks in terms of logical circuits as well as their more traditional role. Sorry about that, perhaps we weren't on the same page after all. Still, I very much like this theory even if I'm having trouble visualising it and am interested in learning more about it.

As for mind, yes I know it would have to explain the qualia as well but for my own part I'd be happy if it just showed how to say convert neural inputs into say numbers representing colours, which I think is what that article may show how to do. How those distinct states convert into conscious qualia is not all that important to me because just knowing that the 'numerical' representations are possible will be a massive step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway my mafia game is about to start so that's gonna take up most of my time for the next few days, so let's leave this here and I'll get back to you on it sometime down the line, hopefully when I've made some progress on it It's been great chatting with you and thanks for everything