Brent Meeker writes: > > I did put in parentheses "this of course assumes a robot can have > > experiences". > > We can't know that this is so, but it seems a reasonable assumption to me. > > If we > > had evolution with digital processors rather than biological processors do > > you think > > it would have been possible for animals with similar behaviours to those > > with which > > we are familiar to have developed? If so, do you think these animals would > > not > > really have "experiences" despite behaving as if they did? Since evolution > > can only > > work on behaviour, if zombie animals were possible why did we not evolve to > > be > > zombie animals? > > > > Stathis Papaioannou > > Of course evolution is not some perfectly efficient optimizer. Julian Jaynes > idea > the consciousness arises from internalizing speech perception would make > consciousness a round-about way of recalling complex practical instructions - > one > that from a final design standpoint could have been done without the > consciousness > but from an evolutionary standpoint might have been almost inevitable. I > don't know > that I buy Jaynes explanation - but it shows that there might well be > consciousness > even if zombie animals would have done just as well.
That's strictly true. It's also possible that consciousness is a byproduct of biological brains but not digital computers performing the same functions, to the point of passing the Turing Test. We'll never know. Stathis Papaioannou _________________________________________________________________ Be one of the first to try Windows Live Mail. http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=5d21c51a-b161-4314-9b0e-4911fb2b2e6d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
