In a message dated 11/5/00 7:59:59 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
But that just necessitates the production of stimulus (not necessarily
*real* objects, mind, virtual ones if generated with enough detail could
suffice, and would allow the interface perhaps to be handled by algorithms
thus lessening the need to program it all "hard") or the access to stimulus
through specially designed interface portals.
But if it is true that consciousness arises as an integral part of having
sensations then machine consciousness may be very different than ours. That
is, many machines now monitor their own functions. They can perceive things
in the environment as well but I don't know if the quality of the sensory
imput is critical to the kind of consiousness we animals have.
I think 2050 is extremely unlikely, but I don't think it's SO much farther
off, at least necessarily. Maybe 200 years, or 250? ThoughI mean barring
really major crisis incidents, though, so that's not a bet. It could be
1000, who knows! It all depends on how deep we need to emulate the hardware
of physical brains to get an isomorphic version of consicousness in a
computer.
The problem may not be in modelling the hardware or software of brains that
live in bodies. it may be that you need a body to have consciousness and that
body may have to function in certain ways. I am not certain how strongly I
feel about this. Until I read D' Amasso's book I was convinced that machine
consciousness was inevitable and it may still be but it may be very different
than ours. It may be a lot more than simply having to converse with your
children in a different language.
>>
