Hi Brad
> This is not at all true. I could design a neural network, or perhaps even
> symbolic computer program that can evaluate the attractivenes of a peacock
> tail and tune it to behave in a similar fashion as that tiny portion of a
> real peacock's brain. Does this crude simulation contain qualia?
I think you reversed my logic.
I'm sure that a relatively simply AI system could be devised to emulate a
peacock's identification of fancy tails. But my guess is that no sense of qualia
would be involved for the simple AI system. But I wouldn't mind betting that
real peacocks perceive something like what we call qualia - and my
expectation is that this sensation plays a part in peacock breeding behaviour.
My real interest is in why brains have evolved to produce sensations that can
be described as qualia - when at first analysis this sensation doesn't appear to
be necessary for intelligent behaviour to occur.
The options seem to me to be that qualia :
o are not necessary and come free as an accidental byproduct; or
o are not necessary but come as a desired byproduct that has got
implicated in gene replication and hence has been propagated and
enhanced; or
o are the logical result of advanced subjective information processing
in a setting of limited computational power.
Cheers, Philip
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