Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site wucs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!wucs!esk
From: esk@wucs.UUCP (Eric Kaylor)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: sentience and 'meat'
Message-ID: <560@wucs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 22:41:54 EST
Article-I.D.: wucs.560
Posted: Mon Dec 10 22:41:54 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 07:39:20 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: Washington U. in St. Louis, CS Dept.
Lines: 23

[]
From: barry@ames.UUCP (Kenn Barry)
> I'm sure if I were uploaded to a silicon brain I would change, and change
> in ways that would not have occurred if I hadn't been moved to different
> hardware. But, hey, I change every day, anyway. Whatever changes occurred
> would, I think, be gradual enough that I would still have the continuous
> sensation of "selfness".

My point was that silicon is so different that you would have no reason
to expect *any* sensations at all; that is, our sentience would seem to
be tied up with the particular type of "meat" found in animals' brains.
Can anybody argue against such a connection?

> I'm already a far different entity than I was
> when I was 5, for instance; not only externally, but also in my experience
> of my own selfness. Am I the *same* person? Does it matter?

No to the latter question.  Nevertheless, being sentient (able to feel)
matters a great deal.
				--the once and future flink@umcp-cs,
				Paul V. Torek, ihnp4!wucs!wucec1!pvt1047
Please send any mail directly to this (last) address, not the sender's.