> It depends on whether consciousness is a computational process.
Absolutely agree. But that is the assumption that I would liken to alchemists comparing lead and gold. We know almost nothing about the brain. We know almost nothing about consciousness. But yet some people assume that consciousness is computable just because we don't know anything else it could be (just as alchemists assumed gold and lead could be transform because they were both chrysopoeic base metals. They hadn't discovered atomic theory yet). When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
We know that the vast majority of numbers are uncomputable[1]. We also have proved that computation is incomplete[2] and can be undecidable[3]. It seems perfectly logical that consciousness is not computable. Or it could be computable, I obviously don't know. If someone makes the claim that consciousness is computable, then the burden of lies with them. We can't accept that on blind faith. At this point it is all opinion and speculation (as you said) because we still can't even define consciousness in a rigorous way. (and I don't think we will ever create artificial consciousness until we can define it, but that is an orthogonal issue).
I’m not assuming anything or accepting anything on blind faith, and I don’t think I’ve given you any reason to think that I am.
If anyone says that they think it is either this or that, it’s reasonable to ask them to justify that belief. There’s no reason to resort to using language like assume, blind faith, etc.
Absolutely agree. But that is the assumption that I would liken to alchemists comparing lead and gold. We know almost nothing about the brain. We know almost nothing about consciousness. But yet some people assume that consciousness is computable just because we don't know anything else it could be (just as alchemists assumed gold and lead could be transform because they were both chrysopoeic base metals. They hadn't discovered atomic theory yet). When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
We know that the vast majority of numbers are uncomputable[1]. We also have proved that computation is incomplete[2] and can be undecidable[3]. It seems perfectly logical that consciousness is not computable. Or it could be computable, I obviously don't know. If someone makes the claim that consciousness is computable, then the burden of lies with them. We can't accept that on blind faith. At this point it is all opinion and speculation (as you said) because we still can't even define consciousness in a rigorous way. (and I don't think we will ever create artificial consciousness until we can define it, but that is an orthogonal issue).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computability_theory [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecidable_problem