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Article 6104 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke)
Subject: Re: Hypothesis: I am a Transducer (Formerly "Virtual Grounding")
Message-ID: <1992Jun5.170559.305@cs.ucf.edu>
Keywords: quantum mechanics,consciousness
Sender: news@cs.ucf.edu (News system)
Organization: IST, University of Central Florida, Orlando
References: <1992Jun5.045522.19139@news.media.mit.edu> <1992Jun5.130022.26367@cs.ucf.edu> <1992Jun5.140801.23688@cs.yale.edu>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 17:05:59 GMT
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In article <1992Jun5.140801.23688@cs.yale.edu> mcdermott-drew@CS.YALE.EDU (Drew McDermott) writes:
>  In article <1992Jun5.130022.26367@cs.ucf.edu> clarke@acme.ucf.edu (Thomas Clarke) writes:
>  >
>  >DID ANYONE EVER WONDER WHY ALL THE DISCUSSIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL 
>  >PROBLEMS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS ALWAYS SOMEHOW INVOLVE A 
>  >CONSCIOUS OBSERVER?
>
>The many-worlds interpretation dispenses with conscious observers,
>which is good, because if there is ever to be an explanation of
>consciousness as a property of matter, our fundamental theory of matter
>cannot presuppose consciousness.
>
>                                             -- Drew McDermott

Many worlds does eliminate the requirement that a conscious
observer determines the moment of observation.  It does so,
however, by postulating that all possible outcomes of all
possible experimental observations occur and continue to 
evolve in parallel.  Conscious observers then must have
the peculiar ability to sense only one possible observational
track.  How this observational track is selected is not
specified.  It always struck me that selecting a single 
observational track for a conscious observer in Many Worlds 
was exactly equivalent to the conscious observer "collapsing
the wavefunction" in more conventional approaches.  No matter
which way you slice it, consciousness seems to still have a 
peculiar relation to the physical world in quantum mechanics.

Is it a priori obvious that consciousness is not a part of
the material world?  Indeed, physicists seem to be driven to this 
conclusion as the only way to theoretically account for observation.
-- 
Thomas Clarke
Institute for Simulation and Training, University of Central FL
12424 Research Parkway, Suite 300, Orlando, FL 32826
(407)658-5030, FAX: (407)658-5059, clarke@acme.ucf.edu


