> > Arnoud, it appears there is agreement that qualia exist -- as a very real > illusion. The "problem" of qualia, however, seems to be the > question of how > to represent/implement qualia in a thinking machine (assuming this must be > designed-in for true and full consciousness.) ... > From a wider point of view the qualia are only an > emergent property of a multitude of separate but interconnected processes. > > - Jef
I don't think qualia are the sort of things that can be implemented or explicitly represented. Rather, I think they're something that occurs in the subjective experiential world associated with certain types of physical system.... So, rather than talking about implementing or representing qualia, we should be talking about implementing structures that are well-suited to serve as the mechanistic correlates of the subjective phenomena of qualia. I'm not positing an old-fashioned dualism here -- I don't think there's some "vital mind-force" that needs to be plugged into an AI to make it conscious! What I think is that the subjective and objective views are two different ways of looking at systems -- both valid and both interesting. Qualia belong to the subjective view, but are correlated with things in the objective view (e.g. things inside AI designs). So, I'd rather not say "qualia are only an emergent property of a multitude of separate but interconnected processes", but rather say that "the implementation-level structures/dynamics that correspond to qualia, are an emergent property of a multitude of separate but interconnected processes." Of course, these are very tricky issues and I don't pretend to have solved all their mysteries. My goal in thinking about these issues has largely been to come up with a consistent and useful set of thought-tools for pragmatic AI design -- including those parts of AI design that are concerned with an AI's subjective experience. -- Ben G ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
