On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 1:53 PM, Brent Meeker <[email protected]> wrote: > > Science advances in small steps that often depend on technology. I think > the next 'hard' question that has some chance of being answered is, what > information processes are necessary and sufficient to produce human-like > conscious behavior.
Does the word "conscious" really fit there? So there is the question of how to implement a physical system that can be interpreted as producing human-like behavior. And then there is the further question of whether the production of this behavior is accompanied by "consciousness". I can configure physical systems in such a way that to me it represents something. For instance I can write software to run on a physical computer that produces outputs that to me represent "game characters" or something. With sufficiently clever software, I may interpret the outputs of the computer to be "behavior" that is more or less "human-like". But my interpretation may be doing all the work here. I may be deluding myself into believing that there is consciousness associated with the actions of the physical system I call a computer...when in fact there is no such thing there. The appearance of "conscious behavior" in the computer could be an illusion. Probably it would be. -- 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.
