Posted by Hal on March 03, 2000 at 13:42:31:
In Reply to: Re: That's cool! posted by BlueLamp on March 03, 2000 at 13:08:29:
> Well if one could make a quantum computer with as many quantum particles
> as the human brain then hopefully one just has to hook up some kind of
> sensory inputs to the environment and some kind of physical outputs to the
> environment and the quantum computer would program itself and be self
> aware just like a human baby... the difference between a quantum computer
> and a conventional one is that a quantum computer has links to possible
> futures, it has parallel processing for each bit of memory, and it
> operates using probabilities instead of being deterministic... IBM's 4 bit
> quantum computer is able to do the equivalent of always choosing the one
> door of four that has something behind it... a conventional computer
> would have to open on average more than two doors... this is equivalent
> to a human brain being able to form a thought without having to
> consciously run through all the possible thoughts... John
That's the whole question in my mind: is conscisousness simply a matter of having a critical number of quantum particles (i.e. does it arise from the physical) or does it come from someplace else, making it something you can't create in a lab? Is Ryan right, that spirituality is garbage, or is there a God, a soul, etc?
BTW, BlueLamp, where in IBM do you work? I'm in Research Triangle Park, NC, in the PowerPC Embedded Processor group. I know you posted some things about yourself a while back, but I've forgotten it, so I'm sorry if I already asked you this.
- Hal -