> this doesn't need to assign consciousness to simpler computations (rocks, buildings, simple cells).
That necessarily follows, I think. The quantum processes in a rock are also a form of computation and, therefore, inhabited by some rudimentary form of experience we might call, dunno, "rockness". I don't see an easy way around it. Perhaps at absolute zero all experience stops?
I have no answers, but your questions are precisely why I find this fascinating to think about!
I would expect there to be very marked jump between the rockness and the computations with the simplest consciousness, that will allow to assign them to different classes instead of having a continuous spectrum going to zero with temperature.
Kind of similar to the way how behavior of cellular automata changes between the predictable patterns and chaotic ones. (But i wouldn't bet all my money on it, only the half:)
That necessarily follows, I think. The quantum processes in a rock are also a form of computation and, therefore, inhabited by some rudimentary form of experience we might call, dunno, "rockness". I don't see an easy way around it. Perhaps at absolute zero all experience stops?
I have no answers, but your questions are precisely why I find this fascinating to think about!