-----Original Message----- From: John G. Rose [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 4:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [agi] CONSCIOUSNESS AS AN ARCHITECTURE OF COMPUTATION
>> ED PORTER ============>> > I am not an expert at computational efficiency, but I think graph > structures > like semantic nets, are probably close to as efficient as possible given > the > type of connectionism they are representing and the type of computing > that > is to be done on them, which include, importantly, selective spreading > activation. > JOHN ROSE ============>> Uhm have you checked this out? Is there any evidence this? It would make it easier if this was in fact the case. ED PORTER ============>> No, I have no evidence other than I do not know of any structure that is more appropriate than graph structures --- which are largely pointer based structures --- to be efficient representation information that has relatively irregular, highly sparse connections in an extremely high dimensional space. > ED PORTER ============>> > Although I think my theory of consciousness is as good as any other I > have > read, it is far from certain, and far from complete, and not necessarily > correct in every details. > > I don't think the richness of human consciousness comes from a > "minimized > essence", but rather from the complicated full-blown richness of the > computation inside our brains. > JOHN ROSE ============>> So there is a scaling to consciousness magnitude? And there are consciousness properties that are stronger or weaker depending on computational richness? ED PORTER ============>> I Think so. Since I think consciousness is made out of computation computing in response to itself in a highly complicated way, it only makes sense that there would degrees of consciousness. Don't you sense that at some moments your consciousness feels richer than at other moments. Many people who have had sudden close brushes with death have reported feeling as if suddenly much of their life were passing before their eyes. This results from extreme emotional arousal that causes the brain operate at many times what it could on any sustainable basis. > Since our senses can only sense --- and our minds can only think --- in > terms of computation (in which I am included representation) --- at > least at > the moment, I cannot think of what it would mean for something to not be > computation, except perhaps nothingness, which we can think of as the > absence of computation. Nothingness or maybe big bang singularity or event horizon conditions? Or some type of subatomic particle that has peculiar properties. Those are all not very helpful for what we are doing, but I still think there maybe something else... there has to be something else applicable or maybe totally inapplicable to AGI. So it may be a waste of time thinking on that one... ED PORTER ============>> I think consciousness is highly applicable to AGI's, if we want them to think like humans --- because I think consciousness plays a key role in human thought. It is the amphitheater in which our thoughts are spoken and listened to. John ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?&; Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=103754539-40ed26 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
