On Nov 7, 2008, at 9:34 AM, Brent Meeker wrote: > I think I agree with Bruno that it is *logically* possible, e.g. > accidental zombies. It's just not nomologically possible.
I'm not sure what counts as an "accidental zombie". Do you mean something like the following: I can write a very short computer program that accepts ascii characters as input, and then spews out a random series of characters as output, and then accepts more input, etc. It's logically possible for me to have a "conversation" with this program in which the program just happens (by accident) to pass the Turing Test with flying colors. Is this what you mean by an "accidental" zombie? If so, it's important to understand that this is not a zombie at all by Dennett's definition (unless I've really misunderstood Dennett). A zombie is something that's physically indistinguishable from a physical conscious entity and yet isn't conscious. That program might be accidentally behaving as if it were conscious, but if you had the proper instruments to examine it physically, you would be able to conclude exactly that: it's a random number generator that's accidentally behaving as though it were conscious. Dennett would claim that a random number generator that passes a Turing Test is logically possible (but extraordinarily unlikely), and he'd happily claim that it's not conscious. He'd claim that zombies are something different, and that they're logically impossible. (He's also used words like "unimaginable" and "incoherent".) -- Kory --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
