Link to originalVirtualism is the idea that consciousness is not a physical object. It’s not a mechanism. It exists as if, and by existing as if, it becomes real because it has causal power over the world, and thereby instantiates himself.
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Link to originalWhat is real?
Something is real to the degree that it is implemented.
→ For a pattern to be realized (brought into existence), it needs to be observed.
→ Existence is the relation to other things. To be is to participate in causal interactions; nothing is real in itself outside of being read by another physical system (nothing to do with esse est percipi (by minds) or “consciousness causes wave function collapse” bs).
→ Patterns are realizable up to the coarse graining of the isomorphism that matters for the relevant causal role.For instance: A weather-simulation is implemented at a certain level of causal structure. From a certain perspective, at a certain resolution, it’s isomorphic to wather and let’s you predict it, but beyond that it falls apart, because the underlying causal sttructures diverge.