Posted: Sep 13, 2017 6:00 pm
GrahamH wrote:
Macro scale objects are known to not be long-term-stable assemblies of specific quantum particles so there is a Theseus' ship issue. Electrons move, in brains, in computers, in chairs... If something we might call a mental state of 'knowing that Paris is the capital of France' was only singly realisable by a specific arrangement of fundamental particles it could not endure over seconds or decades. So it is trivially true that mental states (at least some of them) must be multiply realisable at some level.
Similar reasoning is obvious to anyone that understands digital computers. Two computers can display the same image, read the same text or recognise the same face while having different arrangements of different electrons in their different chips. Your PC and your smartphone have very little in common at the smallest scales when they play the same song, one from mp3 file and the other from pcm file.
Just out of curiosity, what mode of explanation did you use to arrive at the same conclusion?So, it sounds like you're using a homebrew ad hoc reasoning for your mode of explanation. It worked ok this time. I use that sort of thing myself from time to time but I generally find I'm on firmer footing when I can back up my babble with more carefully worked out and formally reviewed modes of explanation. And it certainly makes it easier for people to check that I'm not just pulling it out of ...