Stathis Papaioannou wrote: > Colin Hales writes: > > >>Please consider the plight of the zombie scientist with a huge set of >>sensory feeds and similar set of effectors. All carry similar signal >>encoding and all, in themselves, bestow no experiential qualities on the >>zombie. >> >>Add a capacity to detect regularity in the sensory feeds. >>Add a scientific goal-seeking behaviour. >> >>Note that this zombie... >>a) has the internal life of a dreamless sleep >>b) has no concept or percept of body or periphery >>c) has no concept that it is embedded in a universe. >> >>I put it to you that science (the extraction of regularity) is the science >>of zombie sensory fields, not the science of the natural world outside the >>zombie scientist. No amount of creativity (except maybe random choices) >>would ever lead to any abstraction of the outside world that gave it the >>ability to handle novelty in the natural world outside the zombie scientist. >> >>No matter how sophisticated the sensory feeds and any guesswork as to a >>model (abstraction) of the universe, the zombie would eventually find >>novelty invisible because the sensory feeds fail to depict the novelty .ie. >>same sensory feeds for different behaviour of the natural world. >> >>Technology built by a zombie scientist would replicate zombie sensory feeds, >>not deliver an independently operating novel chunk of hardware with a >>defined function(if the idea of function even has meaning in this instance). >> >>The purpose of consciousness is, IMO, to endow the cognitive agent with at >>least a repeatable (not accurate!) simile of the universe outside the >>cognitive agent so that novelty can be handled. Only then can the zombie >>scientist detect arbitrary levels of novelty and do open ended science (or >>survive in the wild world of novel environmental circumstance). >> >>In the absence of the functionality of phenomenal consciousness and with >>finite sensory feeds you cannot construct any world-model (abstraction) in >>the form of an innate (a-priori) belief system that will deliver an endless >>ability to discriminate novelty. In a very Godellian way eventually a limit >>would be reach where the abstracted model could not make any prediction that >>can be detected. The zombie is, in a very real way, faced with 'truths' that >>exist but can't be accessed/perceived. As such its behaviour will be >>fundamentally fragile in the face of novelty (just like all computer >>programs are). >>----------------------------------- >>Just to make the zombie a little more real... consider the industrial >>control system computer. I have designed, installed hundreds and wired up >>tens (hundreds?) of thousands of sensors and an unthinkable number of >>kilometers of cables. (NEVER again!) In all cases I put it to you that the >>phenomenal content of sensory connections may, at best, be characterised as >>whatever it is like to have electrons crash through wires, for that is what >>is actually going on. As far as the internal life of the CPU is concerned... >>whatever it is like to be an electrically noisy hot rock, regardless of the >>program....although the character of the noise may alter with different >>programs! >> >>I am a zombie expert! No that didn't come out right...erm.... >>perhaps... "I think I might be a world expert in zombies".... yes, that's >>better. >>:-) >>Colin Hales > > > I'm not sure I understand why the zombie would be unable to respond to any > situation it was likely to encounter. Doing science and philosophy is just a > happy > side-effect of a brain designed to help its owner survive and reproduce. Do > you > think it would be impossible to program a computer to behave like an insect, > or a > newborn infant, for example? You could add a random number generator to make > its behaviour less predictable (so predators can't catch it and parents don't > get > complacent) or to help it decide what to do in a truly novel situation. > > Stathis Papaioannou
And after you had given it all these capabilities how would you know it was not conscious? Brent Meeker --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
