Re:The Simulation Argument and the Simulation Barrier
by TheOtherHobbes on Monday November 25, 2019 @06:45AM
(#21627233)
Yes, exactly.
Bostrom is assuming there's a thing called "computation" which is somehow a fully-specified solved problem. (It isn't).
Worse, he's also assuming that this "computation" can somehow simulate something called "consciousness" - which unfortunately for him, is nowhere near to having the formal rigorous definition that "computation" as we know it today would require.
And finally after all that, you get something which is subjectively indistinguishable from life itself.
Well - obviously. If you don't define any of your terms and assume your argument is correct because you don't show your working or get into specifics, you can argue whatever you like.
So, consciousness being computable may not necessarily imply that any given computer could do so. One potential way for this to be the case is if consciousness is tied to some form of hypercomputation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercomputation), which can provide outputs that are not turing-computable. This would mean that a traditional computer couldn't simulate consciousness, but that another hypothetical machine might be able to.